THE Armed Forces of the Philippines said yesterday that government forces have neutralized at least 119 communist New People’s Army guerillas in the first two months of the year under its Bantay Laya II campaign.

NPA strength was pegged at 7,160 men as of December 2006, down from a high of some 12,000 in 2001. The decline was attributed to the success of Bantay Laya 1, a five-year campaign against insurgents that ended last December.

"We are looking forward to turn(ing) the (communists) to an inconsequential level by the year 2007," AFP public information chief Lt. Col. Bartolome Bacarro said in a telephone interview. "This is our accomplishment and we are eyeing an average of at least 1,000 (rebels to be neutralized) for the year, to reduce their number."

He said the AFP is on the right track in meeting its 2010 target of "reducing the communists’ strength from 7,000 to at least 3,500."

In 2006, President Arroyo directed the military and the police to cripple the insurgency before 2010 when her term ends. She released an additional P1 billion to boost AFP’s and PNP’s fighting capabilities.

Bacarro added that Bantay Laya II has also neutralized 50 Abu Sayyaf terrorists. The group’s top leaders remain the subject of continuing operations by close to 10,000 soldiers who have been in Sulu for the last seven months.