From the Manila Times (Mar 9, 2020): NPA kills soldier in insurgency-free Bohol (By Marit Stinus-Cabugon)
THE February 29 encounter in Bilar between troops from the Philippine Army’s 47th Infantry Battalion and an estimated 15 members of the communist New People’s Army (NPA) was more bad news for a Bohol hard hit by the coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) pandemic. The provincial government has been putting up a brave face to preserve Bohol’s image as a peaceful tropical paradise, maintaining that Bohol remains insurgency-free.
Insurgency-free the province may be — based on official parameters. Indeed, the number of incidents involving the NPA is modest. As far as military and civilian government authorities at regional level are concerned, in Central Visayas only Negros Oriental is “conflict-affected”: “Currently, there are 16 identified conflict-affected and vulnerable barangays in Region 7, which are all located in Negros Oriental,” said Secretary Michael Dino, presidential assistant for the Visayas, as he welcomed proposals for projects that would address insurgency in the Central Visayas (Philippine News Agency, Feb. 20, 2020).
In other words, not a single barangay in Bohol is considered “conflict-affected and vulnerable.”
Yet, on February 29, a soldier and a rebel were killed as the army clashed with the NPA in Bilar. When was a soldier last killed by communist rebels in Bohol? I can’t recall. The province was formally declared insurgency-free in February 2010. In April 2017, three soldiers and one policeman were killed in an encounter with elements of the Abu Sayyaf Group who had found their way from Sulu to Inabanga. This “freak” security threat, however, was eliminated within a month.
The February 29 encounter didn’t come out of nowhere. A quick check of incidents in Bohol involving the NPA since May 2017 reveals three encounters, two harassments, and four liquidations. Most of the incidents happened in Bilar or adjacent Batuan. At least four NPA camps have been discovered since 2017. At least six suspected NPA leaders have been arrested in Bohol since June 2018. While some arrests had to do with bloody ambushes in 2000 and 2003, arrests were also made in connection with two liquidations carried out in 2018, one in Bilar, one in Batuan. On March 4, 2019 the police arrested Alvin Fortaliza of Anakpawis Bohol. He is alleged to be be the head of the three-man “Sparu” team that killed Paulino Banga (Cafgu) and Edwin Bugahod (former military intel asset). In June 2018, NPA commander Pedro Lumantas was arrested in a hospital in Tagbilaran City where he was being treated for gunshot wounds sustained during the May 15, 2018 encounter in Bilar. Lumantas, too, has been charged with the murders of Banga and Bugahod.
Isn’t last month’s encounter in Bilar evidence of the escalation of the level of activity of insurgents in Bohol since May 2017? This was the second encounter since October. In November, the newly opened army jungle training base in Batuan was harassed and a Cafgu member was liquidated a few weeks later — in Bilar. The police even suspected that the NPA to have been behind the November 26 attempted murder of a barangay councilor in Batuan. The NPA, however, denies having anything to do with the attack.
Following the October 24 encounter, a camp with 20 bunkers was discovered in the boundary of Sevilla, Bilar, Batuan and Balilihan. Also sometime in October, a group of about 20 persons armed with long firearms, including more than a dozen AK-47s, was reportedly spotted in the area. My guess is that the AK-47s had been used by the enemy in the February 29 encounter as AK-47s have been used in all NPA-related incidents in Bohol since 2017.
Bohol may be “insurgency-free” as per the national government’s standards, but obviously it isn’t insurgent-free. Unfortunately, the official “insurgency-free” tag means that Bohol is denied the support it needs and despite having declared the NPA personae non grata. The presence and operations of the NPA have so far been confined to a corner of the province with Batuan and Bilar towns having seen most of the action. Unfortunately, the police — according to a local source — have made it clear that they will not respond to calls for assistance immediately as they fear being ambushed. People are afraid as there are no policemen or soldiers there to protect them.
The few NPA rebels who are responsible for the liquidations, harassments, camps and encounters are believed to be mostly “old” commanders who hail from that part of Bohol. There they have relatives and they are familiar with the terrain which includes a large area of timberland. There are few people, no roads, no policemen and few soldiers.
While there are no serious social injustice issues enticing people to support or join the NPA; some of the affected barangays need basic infrastructure such as roads, bridges and water systems. As for the insurgents and other armed criminals, they could quickly be neutralized through consistent intelligence-gathering and sustained military operations. What are we waiting for?
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