NATIONAL SECURITY

What is Security?
Freedom from worry and apprehension
(Webster dictionary)

National Security
A state where fundamental rights, privileges are guaranteed and the blessings of democracy is enjoyed by the people.
(j.tiglao)

Reality Bites
A decent roof over the heads food on the table education these are still some of the basic aspirations of the majority of Filipino people

Reality hurts
majority of Filipinos do not only see, smell, taste, touch and hear poverty. They breathe it every day.
(Gemma Tulud Cruz)

POVERTY
"How can we sleep soundly at night when many of our brothers are going hungry and our children are being mal-educated everyday?"
(Sec. Norberto Gonzales)

The ROOT
the lack of a clear definition of governance, the weak justice system, a government that is perceived to be lacking in credibility, and the lack of educational institutions that could inculcate values sympathetic to national security.

Where are we right now?

A nation struggling to struggle to attain real self independence from the bondage of poverty, ignorance and eradication of corruption who is the ultimate cause of moral degradation.
(j.tiglao)

Security Concerns
There are three main armed groups posing CLEAR & PRESENT DANGER to our country. 1. MNLF 2. MILF 3. NPA

MNLF
The Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) is a political organization in the Philippines. It is accredited by the Organization of the Islamic Conference, which allows it to represent Moros with an observer status. Currently, the group is the ruling party of the Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao

MNLF
Organized by Nur Misuari in the early 1970s purposely for creating an independent "Moro Nation". To achieve this goal, the group initiated rebel activities. This led to the Islamic Insurgency in the Philippines.

BREAK AWAY FACTION

As the hostilities continued, the group began to suffer from internal factionalism. Disagreements between moderates and conservatives began to arouse after the reluctance of the MNLF to hold a violent insurgency. In 1981, this caused the more conservative Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) to break off from the group.

MILF
The Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) is a Muslim separatist rebel group located in the southern Philippines. The area where the group is active is called Bangsamoro by the MILF and it covers the southern portion of Mindanao, the Sulu Archipelago, Palawan, Basilan and the neighboring islands.

MILF
Organized by Salamat Hashim sometime in 1981, due to the MNLF's reluctance to launch an insurgency against the Philippine government forces and movements towards a peace agreement The exact size of the MILF is unclear, though its military wing, the Bangsamoro Islamic Armed Forces, is known to consist of a guerrilla army of 12,500 people. The group claimed a peak strength of almost 90,000 "well-armed" men in 1998.

ASG
The Abu Sayyaf Group (Arabic: ;Jamyeh Ab Sayyf; ASG), The name of the group is derived from the Arabic ,abu ("father of") and sayyaf ("Swordsmith ").

ASG
Also known as al-Harakat al-Islamiyya is one of several militant Islamist separatist groups based in and around the southern islands of the Philippines, in Bangsamoro (Jolo, Basilan, and Mindanao) where for almost 30 years various groups have been engaged in an insurgency for an Islamic state, independent of the predominantly Christian Philippines.

Terrorism
Since its inception in the early 1990s, the group has carried out bombings, assassinations, kidnappings, and extortion in their fight for an independent Islamic state in western Mindanao and the Sulu Archipelago with the stated goal of creating a pan-Islamic superstate across southeast Asia, spanning from east to west; the island of Mindanao, the Sulu Archipelago, the island of Borneo (Malaysia, Indonesia), the South China Sea, and the Malay Peninsula (Peninsular Malaysia, Thailand and Myanmar)

Small but DANGEROUS

The Abu Sayyaf is the one of the smallest but strongest of the Islamic separatist groups in Mindanao. Some members have allegedly studied or worked in Saudi Arabia and developed ties to mujahideen (jihad warriors) while fighting and training in the war against the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. The military estimates the group now has less than 400 militants, down from a peak of about 1,200 in 2002.

Funding
Abu Sayyaf obtains most of its financing through ransom and extortion; one report estimated its revenues from ransom payments in 2000 alone between $10 and $25 million. The group was originally not thought to receive funding from any group, but intelligence reports from the United States, Indonesia, and Australia have found intermittent ties to the Indonesian Jemaah Islamiyah terrorist group. The Philippine government considers the Abu Sayyaf to be allied with Jemaah Islamiyah.

Abu Sayyaf an enduring threat in Philippines

MANILA, April 13, 2010 (AFP) - The Al Qaeda-linked Abu Sayyaf group remains capable of causing chaos in the southern Philippines despite the US military's involvement in a nearly decade-long campaign to extinguish it

NPA
The New People's Army (NPA), is a paramilitary group fighting for communist revolution in the Philippines. It was formed on March 29, 1969. The Maoist NPA fights a "protracted people's war" as the military wing of the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP). The NPA is classified as a terrorism|terrorist organization by the US and the EU

Their Mission
The NPA follows Maoism, claiming to fight for that ideology's concept of "New Democracy" Starting out with 60 fighters and 34 rifles, the NPA quickly spread throughout the Philippine Islands during the dictatorship of Ferdinand Marcos. After the declaration of Martial Law in 1972, thousands of students came into the ranks.

Their Targets
The NPA operates mostly in the rural areas. The NPA's targets often include politicians, military, police, criminals, landlords, business owners and occasionally U.S. agents in the Philippines. It is not uncommon for elements of the NPA to collect "revolutionary taxes" from small businesses and aspiring politicians in their area.

Renewed Threat

In its anniversary statement, the CPPs Central Committee said the NPA has been the largest revolutionary army ever built in the Philippines. Contrary to militarys claims, the CPP statement said the NPA is stronger now than in the 1980s, in both political and military terms. The CPP said that it has 120 to 130 guerrilla fronts operating in 70 provinces, more than 800 municipalities and more than 10,000 barangays. It also urged its members to increase the number of guerilla fronts to 168.

Call for Revolution

The Central Committee called on its forces to bring the new democratic revolution to a new and higher level of development.

Why All These THREATS Exist?

Because, politicians have failed in their duty to lead the country to progress. Because, politics is supposed to be about giving direction, defining a better future, and planning how we will reach that future. Our so-called political leaders are not providing direction to the nation. (Sec.Gonzales)

WORST
The concerns of our politicians are not the common good, but their personal ambitions.
(Sec. Gonzales)

Philippine Information Agency

Butuan City (8 February 2008) -- POLITICS, not terror or extremist groups, is the biggest threat to national security, according to National Security Adviser Norberto Gonzales

CALL FOR ACTION

"We have to assess the kind of politics we have today. If we are to move as a nation, we should start defining where we want to go,"
(Sec. Gonzales)

Understanding the Problem

Insurgency is a psychological war,
The greater part of this war does not use bullets. The enemy can do a number of things to inflict harm on the people and to the countrys democratic system
Major General Jovito S Palparan Jr

Where the battle begins

Both the government and the insurgents consider the barangay as the frontline of the ongoing insurgency

Where poverty exist

The living conditions are worse in some areas of the countryside where even basic social services like electricity are nonexistent. In certain places where education is a privilege rather than a right, it means literally crossing rivers and mountains just to get to a dilapidated school building.

THE TRUTH
The prevalence of poverty makes it very easy for the terrorist group Abu Sayyaff to lure and recruit poor, out-of-school youths to join them in their nefarious activities by promising easy money and a better life. In Mindanao, this same gripping poverty fuels the fight of our Muslim brothers and sisters for an independent Muslim Mindanao republic. The feelings of revulsion and the consequent fight against devastating poverty has ignited other revolutionary armed struggles, such as the ones led by the left-leaning New People's Army

The Challenge is