Philippines redeploys thousands of troops for anti-communist offensive
About three army battalions, or 1,500 soldiers, have been pulled from the southern Mindanao region, where the government is observing a two year-old truce with Muslim separatists, to be "re-trained, re-equipped and deployed to augment" the anti-communist drive told reporters.
Cruz said the military should be able to form three other full-strength battalions by recalling soldiers from non-combat duties like security details, soldier-athletes and assignments with government agencies.
"So overall I think we would be able to put together a force of approximately 3,000 soldiers," he added.
President Gloria Arroyo has demanded dramatic reductions in two years in the armed strength and influence of the Communist Party of the Philippines and its 7,400-member New People's Army in the center and south of the main island of Luzon as well as Sorsogon province on Luzon's southern tip.
She has pledged to boost the military and police budgets to allow the armed services to spend about six billion pesos (112.59 million dollars) yearly on equipment.
The Communist Party has been waging a 37-year-old revolt. Its forces are spread through most of the country, straining the manpower and supply lines of the 120,000-strong armed forces and the 100,000-member police.
Sixty-eight percent of the defense budget is devoted to internal security operations, leaving scant resources for external defense. The air force retired its last serviceable fighter jet last year.
Cruz earlier said the campaign, aside from the combat component, would also involve delivering basic services and the building of roads, bridges, hospitals and schools in villages cleared of insurgents.
Arroyo shelved peace talks with the communists in 2004 after the rebels were blacklisted by Manila's main ally the United States as "foreign terrorist organizations".
The government estimates that solving the insurgency would lift economic growth by two percentage points.