00:00Colonel Francel, it is not impossible for a person to forget the responsibility of the police and the armed forces.
00:06But in the upcoming election, it seems like people are worried that maybe that memory should be clearer.
00:15For example, what is the outlook of the Armed Forces of the Philippines in terms of hotspots or areas of interest?
00:23Where do you think there should be more efforts to avoid the deaths that are happening in Abra or the isolated incidents of killings?
00:34It's like police, public order, duty, but everyone is affected. What is the role of the armed forces here?
00:41Here, ma'am, we are working closely and hand-in-hand. Our coordination is very, very close to all agencies.
00:49We are all Filipinos and our goal is to remain peaceful and of course to save our fellow Filipinos.
01:00So while their role is law enforcement and ours is national security, we will be involved in performing this.
01:09So if there are areas where they need the help of the Armed Forces of the Philippines, we are here.
01:15But when it comes to investigation and any law enforcement function, unless we are deputized, they are still the main and lead in those cases.
01:24So we are helping and working together.
01:27In the upcoming election, we were given a clean mandate.
01:32We are under COMELEC in these areas.
01:35So in protecting, transporting bags, in precincts while voting, in hotspots, we will have more troops there.
01:44If there is a need for the role of the Armed Forces of the Philippines, but since we are non-partisan, we are not included in counting or anything.
01:56Mainly, our role there is to establish the checkpoints and more on the national security aspect and protecting the security of our Filipino people.
02:04Okay.
02:05National security aspect, there are internal threats and external threats.
02:09In your investigation, are there still significant internal threats to local armed groups that need to be monitored?
02:17Including the NPA, Abu Sayyaf, and other groups.
02:25Are there still significant internal security threats?
02:29Yes ma'am.
02:30Since the start of the year last January,
02:33none other than Commander-in-Chief gave marching orders to the Armed Forces of the Philippines to end our internal security operations issues.
02:43And to transition to territorial defense because this is a big challenge that we are facing now.
02:50And you saw all throughout the year, ma'am, our news on how we are depleting this force.
02:58But what's good to note here, ma'am, is that there are a lot of people who are surrendering.
03:04So we are asking the remaining forces of this group to go back to the government and let's together fight a bigger challenge which is territorial defense.
03:17And with that, we transition from internal security operations to territorial defense so that our police have a role to continue their law enforcement and keeping the peace that we have attained.
03:32And what we are saying is that there are a lot of places that are declaring insurgency-free.
03:37And we are not letting this go, ma'am.
03:40While we pull our forces towards territorial defense, we have to keep the peace and order situation in certain areas so that our insurgency problem will not recur.
03:54And we are well within targets.
03:57Mindanao has already opened for other areas for tourism, so this is a very good development for us.
04:05And I hope that this will continue as we continue with our pursuit operations and our continuing operations to once and for all finish our insurgency problem here inside our country.
04:18You mentioned Mindanao, the first parliamentary election in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao.
04:24But recently, there were cases of supposedly injured family members.
04:29And there are still many political clans or angkans in that area that have access to guns and armed groups.
04:39What is the outlook on the BARMM elections, ma'am?
04:42This is what we are really focusing on and we are preparing accordingly.
04:48This is very historical on our part.
04:50And because of this, we acknowledge that we really have to pull more resources and personnel to make sure that this will become a very peaceful election.
05:01What we are saying is that BARMM is halal.
05:04And we hope that we can help the area so that we are able to conduct this successfully and peacefully.
05:13So we are preparing together with all other agencies involved in this and looking forward for peaceful elections to ensue.
05:21But of course, our intel operatives are making all the necessary operations in order to know how we would better be equipped and prepared to make this a successful election in the future.
05:35One thing they are waiting for in BARMM is the launch of inquiries and the decision of the Amnesty Commission.
05:43Because there are some Bangsamoro commanders who want to join or join the halal movement,
05:52but they have already filed their certificates of candidacy.
05:54But their plan is to take the peaceful path to peace.
05:59Because the implementation of the comprehensive agreement on the Bangsamoro is slow.
06:04What do you think about this?
06:06I think you sit in the monitoring committee of the Bangsamoro Comprehensive Agreement.
06:13It seems slow, even the decommissioning of the weapons.
06:17Our lead here is our OPAPRO.
06:21Our number is good with the numbers availing of the Amnesty Program.
06:27For us in the Armed Forces of the Philippines, we are helping to implement the programs of the Office of the Presidential Advisor for Peace, Reconciliation, and Unity.
06:38We are well on our way.
06:41We have seen how different programs have been successfully implementing this as a whole of government approach.
06:49So there is a role of the NDFL-CAC, there is a role of the Armed Forces, and each of us are doing our own duty.
06:57In this help, we're looking forward to make this a successful event.
07:03All we want is to attain just and lasting peace.
07:10And looking at all of these programs, we are also helping to effect this successfully.
07:18This is also for the future of the Philippines.
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