Officials and residents of Barangay Datu Ladayon, Arakan, North Cotabato, had declared communist New People’s Army (NPA) rebels as "persona non grata" or unwelcome, unacceptable people.
The declaration was issued during a peace rally held at the village on Sunday.
“We have long been suffering from the abuses of the NPA in our area,” Jonathan Ramirez, village chairman, said over a local radio station Tuesday.
He said their lives have been severely affected by the frequent visits of members of the NPA’s Guerilla Front 53 and Pulang Bagani Command in their area for the past several months.
“They have been demanding revolutionary taxes from the villagers and this is too much,” he said in the vernacular.
The village is known as the "strawberry capital" of Arakan and North Cotabato.
It is also famous for its Matigol Falls, which is frequented by tourists in the village’s Sitio Matigol, a Manobo tribal community.
Ramirez said they only felt relief following the recent arrival of the Army’s 19th Infantry Battalion (IB) in their area.
“With the Army now here with us, we are somehow relieved from the fear of the NPA coming in and out of our village anytime,” he said.
The Army 19th IB, headed by Lt. Col. Elrich Paraso, has set a detachment in the area to fend off NPA rebels from disturbing the serenity of the village.
http://www.pna.gov.ph/articles/1056303
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