Lt. Gen. Rey Guerrero, chief of AFP Eastern Mindanao Command (Eastmincom) after the signing of MOA declaring Surigao del Sur as Conflict Manageable and Ready for Further Development (CMRFD), Tandag City. Photographed by Erwin Mascariñas, InterAksyon.com
Tandag City, Surigao del Sur - The chief of the Armed Forces of the Philippines Eastern Mindanao Command (Eastmincom) is confident that this province will be declared insurgency free by yearend.
Lt. Gen. Rey Guerrero gave this assessment after the ceremony declaring this province as "Conflict Manageable and Ready for Further Development (CMRFD)" on Tuesday.
"By yearend, Surigao del Sur will be insurgency free. That's our target, and I think it is possible that we can do it. Surigao del Sur is one area that needed that much attention, that's why we exerted efforts in bringing in more troops. And we have seen the fruits of our efforts, in just a period of three months we have been able to significantly improve the peace and order situation, reduce New People's Army (NPA) initiated violence. Their manpower and firearms as well as the numbers of affected barangays had been reduced,” said Guerrero.
Guerrero, who flew to Tandag City to attend the signing of the memorandum of agreement (MOA) on the CMRFD stated that, "After this signing, the most logical way ahead of this is to sustain what we've gained. We need to ensure our gains over the past years, particularly on peace and security, with the help of the stakeholders, local government units, law enforcement agencies and with the AFP.”
Guerrero pointed out that with the existing four battalions and the presence of forces on short duration missions or special operations, the NPA influence will be significantly reduced, and others compelled to surrender, even as the number of regular armed NPA in the area is whittled down to around 150.
The MOA was signed by Hon. Johnny T. Pimentel, the Provincial Governor and concurrently Chairman of the Provincial Peace and Order Council (PPOC) of Surigao del Sur, with Col Isidro Purisima, commander of the Army's 402nd Infantry Brigade and PSupt Romaldo G. Bayting, director of the Surigao del Sur Police Provincial Office.
"The deployment of two more battalions, in addition to the existing two others last year, was a significant factor in leading us to declare this province as conflict manageable. The number one condition in the declaration is, first, to lessen the population of the armed group, second is reduce the number of encounters and harassment by the insurgents, so we got those two requirements. This means the peace situation here is getting better, but we made it clear that this doesn't mean the military operations should stop,” said Pimentel.
Pimentel disclosed that he confirmed with Maj. Gen. Oscar Lactao, commander of the 4th Infantry Division that the operations against the insurgents will not be scaled down in order to ensure a successful campaign toward the province becoming insurgency free.
Ka Maria Malaya, spokesperson National Democratic Front-North Eastern Mindanao Region, in a statement, revealed that there were 40 clashes between the NPA-NEMR and troops of the AFP and CAFGU this February 2016, with three fatalities suffered on the NPA side.
http://interaksyon.com/article/125037/eastmincom-surigao-del-sur-to-be-insurgency-free-by-end-2016
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