Army boss says peace talk, cease fire deal pave way for recruitment of reds

From the Philippine News Agency (Oct 5): Army boss says peace talk, cease fire deal pave way for recruitment of reds

A Philippine Army(PA) official here said the government’s peace process and ceasefire agreement with the New People’s Army(NPA) pave the way for recruitment activities by the rebels.

Lt. Colonel Rolando Mangigil, commander of the army’s 54th Infantry Batallion based in barangay Bagumbayan in Dupax del Sur town said rebels who only frequented the villages near the tri-boundary of the province also pushed their recruitment efforts in Nueva Vizcaya’s central towns.

“It is good that as of this moment, no new members were recruited yet. We are encouraging our local officials to be more vigilant and report these activities to us,” he said during the recent Provincial Peace and Order Council(PPOC) meeting at the Nueva Vizcaya Pasalubong Center(NVPC) in this town.

Before the government’s peace offer to the NPA, Mangigil said their remnants were only concentrated within the tri-boundary provinces of Nueva Vizcaya such as Nueva Ecija, Quirino, Ifugao.

http://www.pna.gov.ph/index.php?idn=2&sid=&nid=2&rid=928456