FROM a peak of 24,000 in the mid-'80s, the number of active 'fighting' members of the New People's Army (NPA), the armed wing of the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) and National Democratic Front (NDF), has dwindled to 1,800, the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) said on Monday.

'Indeed, we have achieved strategic victory as far as countering the communist insurgency is concerned,' AFP spokesman Col. Medel Aguilar said during a virtual press conference hosted by the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-Elcac).