Armed Forces of the Philippines
Military forces of the Philippines / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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The Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) (Filipino: Sandatahang Lakas ng Pilipinas) are the military forces of the Philippines. It consists of three main service branches; the Army, the Air Force, and the Navy (including the Marine Corps). The President of the Philippines is the Commander-in-Chief of the AFP and forms military policy with the Department of National Defense, an executive department acting as the principal organ by which military policy is carried out, while the Chief of Staff of the Armed Forces of the Philippines serves as the overall commander and the highest-ranking officer in the AFP.
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Founded under the National Defense Act of 1935, while tracing its roots to the Philippine Revolutionary Army, the AFP has played an integral part in the country's history. The AFP has also been involved in various conflicts, such as combatting rebellion against the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) and its attached organizations, the New People's Army (NPA) and the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDF), and operations against local Islamic terrorists in Mindanao. The AFP has also been part of various peacekeeping operations around the world, as part of its contribution to the United Nations.[6] At present, military service is entirely voluntary.[7]
As a result of the diminished number of active communist rebels and jihadist groups in the 2020s, the AFP has been shifting its primary focus from handling internal threats such as insurgency and local terrorism to defending the Philippine territory from external threats.[8]