The Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) began rebuilding its camps after being battered by Typhoon Pablo, even as government forces also position themselves anew after the truce with the New People’s Army [NPA] guerrillas expires next month. Maj. Gen. Ariel Bernardo, commander of the Army’s 10th Infantry Division, said the AFP has released close to P2 million to repair and reconstruct three battalion headquarters in Davao Oriental and Compostela Valley. He said P650,000 was allocated to the 67th IB in Barrio Salingkumot here, where camp facilities and bunkers of soldiers were flattened.
A bigger budget of P800,000 went to the 66th IB in Maragusan town, Compostela Valley, and the 25th IB in Monkayo town, got P500,000. Bernardo said soldiers in these battalions would also get new combat boots, military clothing, tent and fuel for their vehicles. Police and military camps have not been spared the devastation wrought by the typhoon, as soldiers also narrated tales of applying survival tactics such as crawling to avoid getting carried by the strong wind. A captain in the 67th IB said civilians in Barangay Salingkumot were hidden inside personnel tanks while soldiers crawled underneath.
Bernardo said the NPAs sustained losses due to the typhoon also “but they have sidestepped many of their men to safety, days before the typhoon, to some areas like Pantukan [in southern Compostela Valley.”
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