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| New Peoples Army (NPA) |
By Audrey Morallo
MANILA, Philippines — The military on Friday clarified that the P100,000 reported reward for every communist or Islamist militant killed or captured would come from a local government unit and not the Armed Forces.
The AFP said that the money could not come from the military as there was no existing policy governing such rewards.
“There was no such announcement made by the AFP on the reported 100 Thousand Pesos Reward Money for every member of terrorist NPA,” Col. Edgard Arevalo, the AFP’s public affairs chief, said in a statement, referring to the communist group listed by the US as a terror organization.
On Wednesday, Gen. Eduardo Año, the military chief, announced that the local government of Negros Occidental would put up a P100,000 reward to contribute to efforts to defeat the New People’s Army and Islamist groups.
Año cited the pronouncement of Maj. Gen. Jon Aying, commander of the Army’s 3rd Infantry Division based in Panay, in making the announcement.
Aying said the P100,000 bounty was initially declared by President Rodrigo Duterte during his visit on Negros Island to condole with the families of six cops killed by NPA fighters in an ambush in Guihulngan City last month, according to the military chief.
“That was a pronouncement by General Aying. The reward will come from the local government of Negros Occidental,” Año said, describing it as a local initiative that will contribute to the efforts “to destroy the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP)-NPA.”
Read the full story at PhilStar