THE Armed Forces has dismantled eight more guerrilla fronts of the New People’s Army (NPA) during the past three months.

In a news conference held during a break at the quarterly command conference on internal security operations in Camp Aguinaldo, Quezon City, which was also attended by National Police officials, Gen. Hermogenes Esperon Jr., Armed Forces chief of staff, said the military dismantled the eight guerilla fronts in the Ilocos region, Isabela, Pampanga, Tarlac, Misamis Oriental, Marinduque and Samar.

A guerrilla front covers five to 10 towns.

Esperon also said that military forces have degraded the capabilities of 10 other guerrilla fronts and put 13 more into “advance state of degradation.”

Meanwhile, the National Democratic Front (NDF) claimed that the membership of the rebel movement has nearly doubled last year, belying the claims of the military.

In a statement released for Wednesday’s 34th  anniversary of the NDF, Northeastern Luzon spokesman Salvador del Pueblo said that members of the NPA and the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) increased by 96 percent last year.

He also said the NPA managed to carry out 19 successful operations against the government, killing 49 soldiers and policemen.

Esperon said the military is well on its way to “strategically” defeating the NPA by 2010, as ordered by President Arroyo.

For the whole year last year, the military managed to dismantle 13 guerrilla fronts, a number of which the Armed Forces nearly achieved for the first three months of this year.

In January this year, Esperon promised to dismantle 17 fronts before he officially retires on May 9.

For the first quarter of this year, the military chief also said that government forces “killed or neutralized” 291 rebels, and arrested 14 high-ranking members of the communist movement including Randall Echanis, an alleged member of the CPP executive committee.

He said military forces also recovered a total of 154 firearms for the same period and cleared 200 barangays of NPA influence.

Esperon said that because of this success, they were expecting the NPA to carry out more raids, assassination and terrorist activities including bombings of vital installations.

On the Abu Sayyaf, Esperon said military forces have decreased its membership by 6 percent.

Bohol protests hills’ removal from new ‘Seven Wonders’ list

TAGBILARAN CITY—Government officials in Bohol have lodged a formal inquiry on the removal of Chocolate Hills on the list of world destinations in the running for the new seven wonders of the world.

THE Supreme Court (SC) has ordered the prosecution for graft of three relatives of former first lady Imelda Romualdez Marcos in connection with the behest loans obtained by their company Agretronics Inc. from the Development Bank of the Philippines (DBP) in 1980.

CITY OF SAN FERNANDO—The combined monitoring team of the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) and the National Food Authority (NFA) has been conducting surprise inspections of rice warehouses since the start of the week to deter traders from hoarding the precious grain.

ZAMBOANGA CITY—The al-Qaeda-linked Abu Sayyaf bandits have resorted to petty crimes to boost the group’s resources.

THE Armed Forces has dismantled eight more guerrilla fronts of the New People’s Army (NPA) during the past three months.

THE Sandiganbayan on Wednesday set the arraignment of former justice secretary Hernando Perez and his wife, and their other coaccused, despite their petition to the Supreme Court (SC) asking that the Ombudsman be stopped from prosecuting them.

WHAT was expected to be a heated confrontation between the head of the government’s antismuggling arm and legislators turned out to be fruitful as the House and the Presidential Antismuggling Group (PASG) agreed to help each other in crafting a bill that could eradicate rampant smuggling activities that has cost the government some P120 billion in unrealized revenues annually.

THE Intellectual Property Office of the Philippines (IP Philippines) said Tuesday major issues raised about the Philippines by US lobby group International Intellectual Property Alliance (IIPA) for the evaluation of the United States Trade Representative are unfounded.