Word: arroyo
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...guns help. Last year, Arroyo declared what she called an "all-out war" to destroy the N.P.A., and she has promised her commanders $200 million for better weapons and pay for their troops. The rebels, for their part, have stepped up operations against what they call an "illegitimate, rotten and brutal" administration. With fighting intensifying nationwide, TIME was invited to join a rebel platoon in Mindanao to take an inside look at the conflict that history forgot...
...original invitation to visit one N.P.A. unit was canceled due to "bad weather"-rebel code for increased enemy activity. Instead, we travel north along a half-finished highway through Compostela Valley, another guerrilla stronghold, where troops assigned to Arroyo's security detail had been injured in an N.P.A. ambush in July...
...While outright victory is not a possibility for the N.P.A., neither is extinction. Victor asserts that Arroyo's "all-out war" is unwinnable. The Philippine army is thinly dispersed, he argues, capable of engaging only a quarter of the N.P.A.'s 120 "fronts" nationwide while remaining vulnerable to hit-and-run tactics. "We have learned a lot about guerrilla warfare in 37 years," he warns. Felipe Miranda, a political-science professor at the University of the Philippines, agrees: "The military does not have the capability, in terms of both logistics and manpower, to deal with an insurgency that has been...
...lawyers, journalists, even priests-have been assassinated. Many were members of legal left-wing political parties that senior state officials have publicly accused of supporting, and even fighting for, the N.P.A. Local and international human-rights groups suspect the military is involved in the killings, though last month an Arroyo-appointed commission cleared it of blame for a slew of murders in Negros, an island north of Mindanao. The efforts of a previous government task force were stymied by what the New York-based Human Rights Watch called "a climate of fear and a lack of cooperation by military authorities...
...even without the N.P.A., Arroyo's administration is under siege. So far she has survived two impeachment attempts over allegations of election fraud and human-rights abuses, as well as three coup attempts involving government troops. Some see her declaration of war against the N.P.A. as a concession to the military top brass, which she desperately needs to stay in line. "The military, rather than Arroyo, is pushing the political agenda," says Southeast Asia security expert Abuza. "Arroyo wants to keep the military on her good side. She's always concerned that it will at some point withdraw support...