The Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) vows to be cautious on using military assets against the New People’s Army (NPA) amid the directive of President Rodrigo Duterte to continue its war against the rebel group, a military spokesman said Friday.

“We’re going to use this with extreme caution. We’re going to make use of this only on instances that it is extremely needed or necessary, and if at all that is going to be used we will make sure that it’s going to be intelligence driven and the use of the aircraft will be surgical operations in nature, so that there will be unnecessary collateral damage,” Col. Edgard Arevalo told reporters .

Arevalo emphasized the directives of Duterte for the military and police to use all their available assets only shows the president’s desire to end the violence of the NPA.

“That is still in pursuit of the earlier directive of the president to conduct all-out war against the NPA. Earlier we said that when we say all-out war it means making use of all available resources of the government in order for us to defeat the NPA,” he said.

Arevalo noted that the directive of the president does not mean that the military will just use its assets “unsparingly”.

“This being a clearance given to the AFP it does not necessarily mean that were going to employ these assets of government unsparingly,” he said.

It can be recalled that in recent operations, the AFP used its newly-acquired FA-50 fighter jets against the local terrorist groups in Mindanao.

Duterte ordered police and the military to use all available assets against the NPA following the brutal killing of four policemen who were ambushed in Davao del Sur last Wednesday. Robina Asido/DMS