Saturday, September 14, 2019

Another area in NoCot declares NPA persona non grata

From the Philippine News Agency (Sep 14, 2019): Another area in NoCot declares NPA persona non grata



UNWELCOME. Residents of Sitio Anoling, Barangay Badiangon, Arakan, display placards declaring the New People’s Army persona non grata, during a peace assembly held in their community on Friday (Sept. 13, 2109). The mountain town of Arakan, a first-class community in the second district of North Cotabato, has 28 villages. (Photo courtesy of 19th IB)

Fed up with the communist rebels’ recruitment and collection of revolutionary taxes among locals, another area in Arakan, North Cotabato declared the New People’s Army (NPA) persona non grata on Friday.

This came about after residents of Sitio Anoling, Barangay Badiangon, Arakan, held a peace assembly to make their intent of unwelcoming the NPAs in their community known.

Armed with placards bearing messages such as “Ayaw namin sa CPP/NPA/NDF” (We don’t like CPP/NPA/NDF) and “Gusto Namin Kalinaw, Dili Kakuyaw” (We like enlightenment, not fear), the villagers paraded around to denounce the presence of the NPA in their area.

Officials of Barangay Badiangon also inked a resolution declaring the CPP (Communist Party of the Philippines)/NPA/NDF (National Democratic Front) as persona non grata.


In his message at the peace assembly, Lt. Col. Benjamin Dao-on, commander of the Army’s 19th Infantry Battalion, gave emphasis on President Rodrigo Duterte’s Executive Oder No. 70 which institutionalizes the whole-of-the nation approach in attaining sustainable peace through the creation of a national task force to end local communist armed conflict, before the complaining villagers.

“We have adopted the Community Support Program in our approach to aid the villagers with ample knowledge as for them not to be duped by the NPAs in joining their futile cause,” the military official said.

The mountain town of Arakan, a first-class community in the second district of North Cotabato, has 28 villages.

“The early withdrawal of support by these villages to the NPAs have contributed much in our ongoing anti-insurgency campaign in the area,” Dao-on said.

Over the past several months, 11 other areas in Arakan have also declared the NPA as persona non grata. The areas included Barangays Datu Ladayon, Sumalili, Binoongan, Gambodes, Kulaman Valley, Kabalantian, San Miguel, Salasang, and Kinawayan; and also the sitios of Katindu and Valencia in Barangays Malibatuan and Sto. Nino, respectively.

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

https://www.pna.gov.ph/articles/1080467

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