NPA losing support in Quezon – Solcom

Posted to the Journal Online (Oct 24): NPA losing support in Quezon – Solcom

THE Southern Luzon Command (Solcom) of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) said it has uncovered assault weapons, ammunition and an improvised explosive device (IED) believed buried by members of the communist New People’s Army (NPA) in a remote village in Quezon province. Col. Generoso Bolina, Solcom spokesman, said elements of the 1st Infantry Battalion under Lt. Col. Bong Villareal, stumbled on the arms cache on Sunday while conducting combat patrol operations in the vicinity of Sitio Botae and Tata Abon, Cagsiay 3, Mauban, after being tipped off by local residents. “They (NPA) are now resorting to the burying of their weapons before going down from the hills to start a new life. The NPAs in Quezon are fast losing their reason to exist because the rural folk (masses) are starting to reject them,” Bolina averred. Recovered, among others, were one M14 assault rifle, three M16 assault rifles, magazines with live ammunition, an IED and 10 blasting caps.  With less than 20 NPA full-time fighters in the province, Solcom is confident they can effectively neutralize their influence by the end of the year. In the previous decade and until the middle of 2000, Quezon has been considered as the bastion of NPA power and influence in the entire country. Its decline has been hastened by the arrest or death of its leading cadres like Tirso “Ka Bart” Alcantara, NPA chieftain for the entire region, Gregorio “Ka Roger” Rosal, Cesar Batralo, Philip Limjuco and Benjamin Mendoza, among others. Alcantara was captured in Lucena City early last year, while Rosal, spokesman of the Communist Party (CPP), died from illness also last year. Batralo, chief of the NPA Rizal command and consultant to the peace process, and Limjuco, head of the elite Special Operations Group (SOG), were victims of enforced disappearance during the Macapagal-Arroyo administration. Mendoza, the highest ranking official of the CPP-NPA in the region as secretary of the Southern Tagalog Regional Party Committee (STRPC), was arrested in Quezon City last October 5. Bolina said they would be presenting at least four “rebel returnees” who personally know Mendoza when he is presented in court this November 4 to disprove claims that they arrested the wrong person.

http://www.journal.com.ph/index.php/news/provincial/40248-npa-losing-support-in-quezon--solcom