The Armed Forces of the Philippines said that they will continue with their internal security operations against the New People's Army (NPA) despite the holidays.

At a press briefing, AFP spokesperson Col. Francel Margareth Padilla said that "over the years the CPP (Communist Party of the Philippines) has shown that they are anti- government, anti-development, and anti-people so with this the Armed Forces of the Philippines will continue with our internal security operation."

The NPA is the armed wing of the CPP, which is marking its 66th anniversary of December 26.

Earlier, the Philippine National Police said it will not suspend its operations against the NPA.

Padilla said that they are " well within targets" as the military reduced the seven weakened guerrilla fronts to one since the start of the year.

She said the lone weakened guerrilla front, which Padilla did not mention, is no longer capable of conducting large operations.

"They are no longer capable of staging major operations and they also have a leadership vacuum so they are not capable of recruiting any more additional personnel into their ranks. So these are the gains that we have and we intend to sustain these", Padilla added.

The AFP will continue its operations to meet any eventualities and monitor areas under "insurgency free" in order to "attain a just and lasting peace", said Padilla. Marie Manalili/DMS