Counterterrorism to remain Philippine military's focus

The military will sustain the gains to prevent the resurgence of insurgency and terrorism in the country.

Counterterrorism is one of five focus areas under the new Philippine military chief. Pictured are troops of the Army’s 6th Infantry Division during training.

MANILA: The new chief of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) has vowed to keep counterterrorism as one of their focus areas despite the reported shift of manpower and equipment to territorial defence. 

Gen. Romeo S. Brawner Jr. laid down his AFP command guidance, “Unity”, during the first AFP command conference on Friday (July 21) at Camp General Emilio Aguinaldo, Quezon City, according to a statement Sunday (July 23).

Brawner was earlier appointed as the 60th AFP chief succeeding Gen. Andres C. Centino. 

During the conference, Brawner emphasised five areas on which he will focus his efforts in line with the President of the Philippines and the AFP Commander-in-Chief, Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr.'s, call for national unity. 

“U is Unification of all people internally - the command including officers, enlisted personnel, and civilian human resource and also, the people externally - especially the former rebels who will unite once again with their families; N is Normalization, for the AFP will support the normalization process in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao; I is Internal Security Operations, as the command will sustain and protect the gains to prevent the resurgence of insurgency and terrorism in the country; T is Territorial Defence, the AFP will endeavour to modernise its equipment, facilities, processes, and subsystems; as well as maintain the discipline and professionalism to ensure that the organisation is a credible and competent fighting force capable of defending the country’s territorial integrity and sovereignty; and Y is Youth, the AFP will do its share in developing the Youth, the future leaders of our nation, to be responsible and patriotic defenders of the nation and territory,” said Brawner.

Senior defence and military officials from the AFP joint staff, personal staff, special staff and technical staff attended the command conference to discuss the new AFP operations and modernisation, the department's plans, programmes and legislative agenda.

The Philippines is grappling with communist and local terrorist groups including those aligned with Daesh.