Inihayag ni AFP Spokesperson Col. Francel Padilla ang pagtutok ng kanilang ahensya sa nalalapit na eleksyon sa Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM) bilang bahagi ng kanilang layunin na tiyaking mapayapa ang halalan. Panoorin ang video. #TheMangahasInterviews
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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.