Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) chief Gen. Gilbert Gapay said the military will not allow the Communist Party of the Philippines to conduct a plenum on their 52nd anniversary on December 26.

"They celebrate their anniversary, December 26, with a large meeting they call it plenum but right now, we don't, I don't think they would have one this year we are monitoring closely, even in their, they have their websites," he said.

"Before they are very vocal about conducting their plenum, then their agenda, although (it is an ) undisclosed location but right now we do not monitor any plenum and we will not allow them to have one really," he added.

Gapay said the military is closely monitoring the movements of the communist group as the AFP monitored their plan to conduct atrocities against communities and the government forces.

"Our intelligence community is closely monitoring their actions, they have planned really to conduct atrocities in different parts of the country particularly in vulnerable and remote communities. They plan to conduct extortion, recruitment and of course the threat to our security forces," he said.

"They are planning to attack far-flung detachments. They are just waiting for opportune time... especially during these break, so when they have the opportune time when they feel that we have put our guards down, they will attack. But of course, we know their modus and right now we do not have a lot of such incidents," Gapay noted.

"They are very active in social media, unlike before they conduct rally but they cannot do that now, thanks to COVID and of course not only COVID, but their supporters are really dwindling unlike before most of them were being paid, but now... their supporters are waning that's why they only use social media," he added. Robina Asido/DMS