AFP 'all-out-war' vs NPA to be surgical in nature

From the Philippine News Agency (Feb 7): AFP 'all-out-war' vs NPA to be surgical in nature

As the government declares an "all-out war" against the New People's Army (NPA), the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) assured the public that it will not be indiscriminate in the conduct of is operations to prevent needless civilian casualties.

This was stressed by AFP public affairs office chief Col. Edgard Arevalo in a briefing Tuesday.

"Well, when you talk about all-out-war, it means that we are going to make use of all available assets of our AFP to accomplish our mission, by 'all-out-war', however we do not mean that we are going to be indiscriminate in our conduct of operations, our operations will always and has always been focused and determined but we are not going to be indiscriminate," he added.

Arevalo said the government offensive against the NPAs will not be pressured by a deadline or timeline.

The AFP public affairs chief added that the military offensive will be well planned, surgical in approach and deliberate as it's intention to defeat the NPA not only militarily but also through their infrastructure and support systems, and destroy their will to fight.

Arevalo stressed their "all-out-war" approach is also aimed at convincing remaining NPAs to voluntarily surrender and be part of main stream society.

http://www.pna.gov.ph/index.php?idn=1&sid=&nid=1&rid=961745