Eastmincom chief: NPA still top threat but strength, support ebbing

From the Sun Star-Cagayan de Oro (Nov 11): Eastmincom chief: NPA still top threat but strength, support ebbing

ALTHOUGH the New People’s Army (NPA) has remained as the number one security threat in the country, a military official said the Maoist insurgents’ strength and support has been eroding.

In the past few weeks, the military has engaged in firefights with the NPA every day within the area of responsibility of the Philippine Army’s Eastern Mindanao Command (Eastmincom).

Lieutenant General Aurelio Baladad, Eastmincom chief, said in the last two months, the units under his command, the 4th and 10th Infantry Divisions, are averaging one encounter with the armed insurgents a day. In the last 10 days, it has increased to two firefights a day.

In the areas covered by the 4ID (northern Mindanao and Caraga regions), the troops have engaged the enemy 29 times last month, Baladad said.

The difference, he added, is that the military is now targeting NPA main camps.

“Hindi na tayo nag-eengkwentro sa tabi-tabi lang, nag-eengkwentro tayo sa guerrilla base nila (we are no longer engaging them in some random area, but in their main camps), and that is a very big difference,” Baladad said.

Just recently, the 4ID scored against the NPA when soldiers from the 3rd Special Forces Battalion attacked a major rebel encampment in Sitio Hebron, Barangay Tubigon, Sibagat town in Agusan del Sur.

Considered as an NPA regional headquarters in Caraga, the camp housed some 80 guerrilla fighters who fled when the Special Forces platoon closed in on them during a 30-minute exchange of fire. Weapons and assorted items were retrieved from the site.

Baladad said that although he and 4ID commander, Major General Oscar Lactao, are new to their present positions, “we have infused new activities and programs as part of the campaign plan. We have injected new innovations and they’re paying results as of now.”

Significant strides

Per Lactao’s report to Baladad, the 4ID’s accomplishment in the last month is very important in a sense that the military is fighting the enemy in their own turf.

He added that in a short span of time as the 4ID commander, Lactao has made “significant strides.”

“Encounters happen in areas where the NPAs think they are formidable and influential, nasa looban, nasa bundok na. They have nowhere to hide,” Baladad added.

In a separate interview, Lactao said one of the remedies the 4ID has introduced to thwart any threat to the security in his AOR is the strengthening of checkpoints, manned by the military in coordination with the police.

Lactao said the army needs the police and civilians since the 4ID cannot afford to deploy soldiers in every corner of its area.

He said the 4ID area has around 4.2 million inhabitants, and if the ratio is to be followed, the military needs at least 8 million soldiers to keep watch but the division practically does not have that many enlisted troops.

To bring back lasting peace in Mindanao, Lactao said it should be the people themselves who will say “ayaw naming ng gulo, ‘wag na tayong magpatayan. Ihinto na natin ‘to (We don’t want war, let’s stop killing each other. We must put a stop to all this).”

http://www.sunstar.com.ph/cagayan-de-oro/local-news/2014/11/11/eastmincom-chief-npa-still-top-threat-strength-support-ebbing-3