Army bares new NPA threat in Pangasinan

From the Philippine News Agency (Dec 17): Army bares new NPA threat in Pangasinan

The Philippine Army (PA) has admitted there are threats posed by a new group of New People’s Army (NPA) in Pangasinan, however, this makes the military more determined to end insurgency in the province.

Colonel Henry A. Robinson. Jr., commanding officer of the 702nd Infantry (Defender) Brigade, admitted that one of PA's targets "is to work for the declaration of Pangasinan as insurgency-free.”

Robinson was here on Thursday when he briefed the Pangasinan’s Peace and Order Council and the Anti-Drug Abuse Council during a joint meeting at the Pangasinan Technology and Development Center here.

He told the councils that the Army is confronted by a new group of communist terrorist named Nueva Ecija-Pangasinan Commission (NEPC).

NEPC is composed of two armed groups: the KLG Caraballo and LGP 1, he said.

He said the KLG Caraballo is operating in eastern Pangasinan, specifically in the municipalities of Umingan, San Quintin, Natividad and San Nicolas.

LGP is found in some municipalities of Nueva Ecija, he said.

Robinson added the 702nd Brigade is exerting all efforts to have the province of Pangasinan declared “peaceful and insurgency-free.”

The Army is conducting anti-insurgency operations which clipped the capabilities of the KLG Caraballo group.

The operations are carried out to minimize the threat of the armed group and to ensure security in the province, he said.

Governor Amado Espino III, chairman of both councils, hailed the initiative of the PA to declare the province as insurgency -free.

He recalled that Pangasinan was first declared insurgency-free in 2010 under the leadership of his father, then -Governor Amado T. Espino, Jr., now congressman of the fifth district of Pangasinan.

http://www.pna.gov.ph/index.php/articles/1019078