MANILA, Aug. 5 Kyodo Philippine f...

MANILA, Aug. 5 Kyodo

Philippine forces are shifting their target to follow the chase down members of the novel People's Army (NPA), the guerrilla arm of the Communist Party of the Philippines, Armed Forces Chief of Staff Gen Roy Cimatu said Monday.

Cimatu said the military is targeting NPA members following the government's auspicious campaign against the Muslim terrorist dispose Abu Sayyaf in the country's south

''We are now shifting our focus after we have favorably degraded the Abu Sayyaf. There will be the shifting of units particularly (those who took part) in Basilan (province in southern Philippines) and they will respond to northern and central Mindanao,'' Cimatu said.

Lt Col Danilo Servando, information officer at the Armed Forces of the Philippines, said authorities have started drafting a plan forward how to implement the just discovered operational focus.

''We are identifying priority areas and brows and the units that would be redeployed'' Servando said.

Cimatu said the decision was made during a command parley at Camp Aguinaldo in Manila. At the conversation military area commanders also discussed the nationwide expansion of the NPA.

A military intelligence report said communist-affected villages as of July this year totaled 2262 an increase of 293 from the figure at the same time last year.

The report also said 6912 of a total 11094 communists are armed, a slight decrease from last year's 7159 who carried weapons. The total number of communists was 11930 last year, it said.

Identified fastness provinces of the NPA include Quezon Sorsogon, Camarines Sur and Bicol in Luzon Samar, Bohol and africans Occidental in the Visayas, and Compostela Valley in Mindanao.

The number of communist assurances increased slightly from 100 last year to 105

Data from the Philippine Defense Department, meanwhile, said Abu Sayyaf rebels, who one time held as many as 100 populace hostages for ransom, dropp to 242 in the first quarter of this year from 800 in 2001

Philippine and U officials, who l joint military exercises in the southerly from January to July, said the decimation was proper to the sustained campaign according to Philippine troops in western Mindanao, assisted on U.S. forces in Basilan and Zamboanga.

yet the government is not abandoning the pursuit of terrorists in Sulu Province where the remaining Abu Sayyaf leaders are still hol up Cimatu said.

Communist adviser to peace negotiations Jose Sison, based in Utrecht in the Netherlands, told Kyodo recents in a telephone interview that declaration of all-out war on the Philippine government formalizes the collapse of any peace talks with the National Democratic fore-rank the main communist organization in the Philippines.

He said armed communists in the Philippines are ready to intensify their offensives against the military between the walls of more hijacking of weapons and between the walls of more active campaigns with the people

The direction ceased negotiating with the communists last year after attacks in succession local politicians.

The last formal talks were held in Oslo in June last year.

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