Tuesday, July 2, 2019

CAPDev helps free Bukidnon village from NPA grip

From the Philippine News Agency (Jul 2, 2019): CAPDev helps free Bukidnon village from NPA grip



Google map of Cabanglasan town, Bukidnon province.

CABANGLASAN, Bukidnon – The Army's 4th Infantry Division (4ID) has hailed the Convergence Areas for Peace and Development (CAPDev) implemented in the village of Iba in this town as a model of transformation.

In a statement Tuesday, the 4ID said
Barangay Iba used to be a "mass base" for New People’s Army (NPA) that has since risen up "against communist cadres’ propaganda and exploitation"."Soon, Barangay Iba shall be the showcase of a fully transformed community, having been the recipient of multi-million worth of projects and services from a program called CAPDev," the 4ID said.

CAPDev, part of 4ID's community support program (CSP), was launched by the Region 10 Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (RTF- ELCAC 10) on June 28. It seeks to prioritize the delivery of socio-economic services and infrastructure projects in conflict-affected and high-poverty incidence communities.


Brig. Gen. Edgardo de Leon, commander of the Army’s 403rd Brigade, said that Sitio Mainaga of Barangay Iba used to be an NPA "radicalized community" where the residents were made to hate the government through the rebels' agitation propaganda and lies until the 8th Infantry Battalion’s CSP teams conducted dialogues from May 28 until October 10, 2018.

Through community-based interactions and other forms of constructive engagement, De Leon said 20 members of the NPA's Militia ng Bayan (MB) voluntarily surrendered and yielded 17 firearms of various calibers.

The 4ID added that at least 97 residents bared their links with the NPA as members of “Hingpit na Organisadong Masa (HOM)” and “Sanga ng Partido sa Lokalidad (SPL).

According to Lt. Col. Ronald Illana, 8IB commander, Sitio Mainaga "lies at the middle of the crossroad of NPA's “revolutionary corridor, used by the rebels as a passage from Northern Bukidnon through Kalabugao plains and towards Eastern Misamis Oriental.

Illana said Barangay Iba also used to be the gateway of NPA’s supplies and logistics eastward to Agusan del Sur and southward to Southern Bukidnon.

The village's “liberation” from the grip of NPA, he said. "significantly weakened the communist terrorist group in Northern Mindanao”.

De Leon said that with the village's dissociation from the NPA, Barangay Iba is "back to its originally peaceful and united community".

The military official said that with the renewed trust and confidence on the government, "local residents welcome the infrastructure projects and livelihood programs that were brought in and committed by local and national government agencies".

“The launching of the CAPDev program in Brgy Iba is just the beginning of the RTF-ELCAC X’s implementation of a grassroots level socio-economic, non-military interventions in Region 10, specifically aimed at “liberating” the communities from the lies and deceptions of the NPA terrorists," De Leon said.

Meanwhile, Maj. Gen. Franco Nemesio Gacal, 4ID commander, thanked the RTF-ELCAC in Regions 10 and 13 for making "substantial strides in orchestrating civilian agencies-led efforts to curtail the communist insurgency problem in our area of responsibility."

"Our concept of a non-military and service-oriented ‘peaceful war’ has gone full steam with peace and development stakeholders joining hands to eliminating conflicts in areas declared as Peace and Development Zones (PDZs) in Caraga and Convergence Areas for Peace and Development (CAPDev) in Region 10," Gacal said.

The CPP-NPA is listed as a terrorist organization by the United States, European Union, United Kingdom, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and the Philippines.

https://www.pna.gov.ph/articles/1073916

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