Public safety
Army Pivots to Territorial Defense in Northern Mindanao
September 30, 2026 · Joshua S Bariñan
Armed Forces of the Philippines Chief of Staff Gen. Antonio Nafarrete visited the 4th Infantry Division in Cagayan de Oro City on September 26 and said the military will now put more weight on territorial defense and community security in Northern Mindanao and Caraga. Officials linked the shift to the reported dismantling of seven communist guerrilla fronts in the two regions, part of a national move the Army has been building toward since 2025.
The AFP says the 4th Infantry Division will now prioritize territorial defense and community security in Northern Mindanao after reporting the dismantling of seven guerrilla fronts.
What the AFP Chief Announced
Gen. Antonio Nafarrete, the Armed Forces of the Philippines chief of staff, visited the 4th Infantry Diamond Division at Camp Evangelista in Cagayan de Oro City on September 26. He told troops the military will now put more weight on territorial defense, community security, and support for local governments across Northern Mindanao and the Caraga Region.
Nafarrete framed the shift around what officials described as the dismantling of seven communist guerrilla fronts in the two regions. He told the gathered soldiers that combat accomplishment is not the end of their work, and that the objective was never simply to defeat an armed group.
He also pledged continued Army support for local chief executives on community programs, speaking partly in Filipino, and said the military sees national security as a shared responsibility across government agencies and civilian sectors rather than a task for soldiers alone.
At the same visit, the division recognized 12 personnel with Gold Cross and Silver Cross medals for their roles in recent operations, and 17 civilian peace partners received a commendation medal and ribbon for supporting local peace and development work.
From Fighting Insurgents to Guarding Territory
The Cagayan de Oro announcement extends a policy direction the Army has been stating publicly since March 2025, when then Army chief Lt. Gen. Roy Galido said the service was moving its focus from internal security operations against communist and local terrorist threats toward territorial defense, protecting land, coastline, and sovereignty against external factors.
That direction sits under the Department of National Defense's Comprehensive Archipelagic Defense Concept, a strategy meant to build the country's capacity to secure its full territory and exclusive economic zone.
Northern Mindanao got an early, visible piece of that shift in March 2026, when Philippine and United States troops ran a two week Balikatan exercise built around coastal defense, including a simulated coastal landing at Macabalan Bay in Cagayan de Oro. The 4th Infantry Division's commander at the time, Maj. Gen. Michele Anayron, said he had personally recommended the region as a training site so soldiers in Mindanao could gain experience in external defense operations alongside allied forces.
Similar drills have since run elsewhere in Mindanao. In August, the Army's 1st Infantry Division led a joint exercise in Dipolog City pairing coastal defense operations with a mass casualty evacuation drill, while the 11th Infantry Division ran a parallel exercise in Sulu. Army spokesperson Col. Louie Dema ala described both as inter agency territorial defense operations exercises meant to test coordination among the military, police, coast guard, and local responders under a whole of nation approach.
What Led to the Dismantling Claim
The seven front figure follows months of reported gains against the New People's Army in the two regions. The 4th Infantry Division's April to June campaign review recorded 11 armed encounters, 20 communist guerrillas neutralized, and 31 firearms seized across Northern Mindanao and Caraga.
Officials said the most significant result was the collapse of the North Eastern Mindanao Regional Committee, tied to the neutralization of its operations commander, Edilberto Daval, and the surrender of its former secretary, Elena Rambuyon. Maj. Gen. Marion Angcao, who took over the division in May, said the committee had been completely dismantled by the time of that review.
The claim was tested again this month. On September 12, division troops clashed for most of a day with fighters in Barangay Bakingking, Esperanza town in Agusan del Sur, killing an alleged high ranking communist secretary and three others. The Army described the clash as the collapse of an attempt to rebuild the dismantled committee.
Not every front in the division's area is gone. The North Central Mindanao Regional Committee remains active, though the Army has said its remaining strength has fallen to a small number of fighters compared with tens of combatants in past years.
What Residents Should Know
The territorial defense label covers more than counterinsurgency. It points to drills built around coastline protection, disaster style mass casualty response, and coordination with police, the coast guard, and local government units, the kind of exercise already run in Zamboanga Peninsula and Sulu this year.
For Northern Mindanao and Caraga residents, the practical near term change is less about new combat operations and more about which partners the Army works with locally, since Nafarrete's remarks centered on support for local chief executives and community programs rather than new deployments.
The division's own numbers show the fight against the NPA in the area is not finished, given the active North Central Mindanao front and this month's clash in Agusan del Sur. Residents in areas with past guerrilla activity should treat official statements about a front being dismantled as describing that specific unit, not the end of all military activity in their province.
Anyone wanting specifics on Army activity in a particular barangay should check directly with their local government unit or the 4th Infantry Division's public affairs office, since national level announcements like this one do not always specify which towns see continued troop presence.
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