In the past two years, the Philippine Army has declared 42
towns in Eastern Visayas as insurgency-free,
raising military’s confidence that the region will attain the rebel-free status
by next year.
In a report to the Regional Development Council (RDC)
development administration committee, Lt. Col. Ferdinand Bajarin, assistant
chief of staff for intelligence of the Army’s 8th Infantry Division (8th ID)
said that of the 42 areas, nine are in Northern Samar, four in Samar, four in
Eastern Samar and 25 in Leyte.
“This is in line with our effort to declare Samar, Eastern
Samar, Northern Samar and Leyte as
insurgency-free by 2016,” Bajarin said.
Since October 2013, declared as insurgent-free are the towns
of Allen, Biri, Capul, San Antonio, San Vicente, Rosario, Lavezares, San Jose,
and San Roque in Northern Samar; Alamagro, Tagapul-an, Sto. Nino, and Daram in
Samar; Guiuan, Mercedes, Lawaan, and Salcedo in Eastern
Samar .
In Leyte, listed as rebel-free are Palompon, Bato, Matalom,
Inopacan, Tabon-tabon, Dulag, Julita, Babatngon, Tabango, Abuyog, Mahaplag,
Hindang, Barugo, San Miguel, Leyte, Pastrana, Hilongos, Tolosa, Mayorga,
Matag-ob, Merida, Dagami, Calubian, Sta. Fe, and Alangalang.
These areas have been jointly declared as free from threats
of New People’s Army (NPA) by local government units and Army battalions in the
region.
Bajarin admitted that NPA remained a major security threat
in the region since it is undertaking terrorist activities such as murder,
extortion, ambuscade, raid and mass mobilizations.
However, the organization has been weakening in the past few
years as it is not anymore capable of launching major attacks.
“This year, there were only two ambush incidents in Samar provinces. With those enemy activities, we could
already see that that insurgency in Eastern is on the downtrend,” he added.
Lt. Col. Rodrigo Ilustrisimo, chief of the 8th ID
Communication-Electronics and Information Systems, said that more towns will be
declared as insurgency-free before the end of 2015 and early next year.
“We are on track of making Eastern
Visayas insurgency-free by 2016. This has been done by bridging
the gap between government and populace,” Ilustrisimo said.
The official emphasized the value of building roads to
provide access for the delivery of services, bring trade opportunities, and
contribute to peace and order efforts.
http://www.pna.gov.ph/index.php?idn=2&sid=&nid=2&rid=831683
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