A spokesman of the New People’s Army on Saturday received orders for its personnel to start attacking government troops and military targets.

“Starting today, the Unilateral Declaration of Interim Ceasefire is now completely terminated,” said Ka Oris, the nom de guerre of Jorge Madlos, spokesman of the National Operational Command of the NPA.

All NPA commands and territorial units, as well as people’s militia and self defense units, can now take the full initiative to defend the people and advance their interests, especially in the face of the declaration of all-out war of the Duterte regime, he ordered

The Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) estimates that the NPA has 3,700 fighters.

“(The NPA) must frustrate the all out war of suppression of the AFP by launching launch tactical offensives against any legitimate military target, including active troops of the AFP and PNP, paramilitary or AFP-supported armed vigilante groups, intelligence operatives, and warlord private armies in detachments, camps or operations within and beyond the NPA guerrilla zones.”

He said that since February 1, the NPA waited for the Philippine government’s

”positive response to the widespread clamor for it to implement its CARHRIHL (Comprehensive Agreement on Respect for Human Rights and International Humanitarian Law) obligations (primarily the release of all political prisoners) which could have preempted the termination of the CPP (Communist Party of the Philippines) and NPA’s unilateral ceasefire.”

“GRP ( Government of the Republic of the Philippines) Pres. (Rodrigo) Duterte displayed intransigence and arbitrarily cancelled all peace negotiations, playing to the AFP line of an “all-out war” against the CPP and NPA,” he said..

Over the last 10 days, NPA units carried out almost 30 military actions to defend the rights and welfare of the people primarily against AFP troops occupying barangays and conducting strike operations,” added “Ka Oris.” DMS