AFP to declare Samar island towns as rebel-free

From the Philippine News Agency (May 13): AFP to declare Samar island towns as rebel-free

The Philippine Army’s 8th Infantry Division (ID) in Eastern Visayas will declare five island towns in Samar provinces as insurgency-free this year.

This is in addition to the 15 towns in Leyte province that were declared as free from serious rebel threats, said 8th ID Commander Major Gen. Jet Velarmino.

Two of the three provinces in Samar Island are composed of island towns with three in Northern Samar and five in Samar.

Of the two provinces, Northern Samar’s three island towns was just declared to be insurgency-free and tourism-ready areas.

But the army official declined to mention these island towns since it’s not yet final. Prior to declaration as insurgency-free the town will have to be proclaimed as manageable conflict-affected and ready for development area.

In the military campaign to achieve insurgency-free status of the region, Velarmino said the encounter between government troops and rebel groups is inevitable.

“Based on our observation, rebel groups in Leyte province has the tendency to leave their weapons during clashes while those in Samar would engage in a fire fight with government troops,” he said.

Velarmino cited as example the recent encounter between rebel groups and government troops in a remote village in Ormoc City when soldiers from the 19th Infantry Battalion recovered firearms, gadgets, assorted medical provisions, foodstuffs, personal belongings and subversive documents.

The 8th ID has three army brigades in Eastern Visayas - the 803rd Brigade based in Catarman, Northern Samar; the 801st Brigade based Hinabangan, Samar and the 802nd Brigade based in Ormoc City.

The army division has 11 battalions stationed in Leyte, Samar, Northern Samar and Eastern Samar provinces.

Just recently, one of its battalion, the 34th Infantry Battalion (IB) was re-assigned to Maguindanao to augment government troops securing peace in Mindanao area.

But the troops re-assignment will not affect their anti-insurgency campaign, said Velarmino.

“That was a mandate to us from our higher up to help in securing peace and order problem in the Mindanao, but our troops in the region can assure that we can handle problem of insurgency in this region,” Velarmino added.

Ensuring and attaining peace is not just a job of government troops said Kananga, Leyte Mayor Elmer Codilla where 19th IB is based.

Codilla cited the collaborative effort of all agencies of the government and the community as essential in winning the peace.

Although, there are still presence of insurgents in his town, Codilla said that people in the community now has changed their perspective towards military after availing the services of the government through the help of the military.

“The army and the local government units cannot do it on their own. We need help from the community that are now cooperative since they have seen that soldiers are now more approachable and they are partner in development,” Codilla explained.

Kananga town is one of important towns in the province of Leyte as it hosts the largest geothermal plant in Asia and the second largest geothermal plant in the world - the Tongonan Geothermal Plant.

As part of government effort to convince more rebels to surrender, the government through the Department of the Interior and Local Government implements the Comprehensive Local Integration Program, a reward system that will help rebel returnees to be integrated with the society by acquiring knowledge in livelihood skills and receive incentives from surrendering firearms.

The army assists the DILG in processing documents of rebel returnees for them to avail the reward of abandoning communism.

http://www.pna.gov.ph/index.php?idn=2&sid=&nid=2&rid=761374