NPA guerilla fronts in island dismantled – Army

From the Visayan Daily Star (Jan 16, 2024): NPA guerilla fronts in island dismantled – Army (By GILBERT P. BAYORAN)

All of the five New People’s Army guerilla fronts in Negros Island have been declared “dismantled” by the Army’s 3rd Infantry Division.

Lt. Col. J Jay Javines, 3ID Civil Military Operations officer, disclosed yesterday that as December last year, the remaining “weakened” South West Front of the Komiteng Rehiyonal Negros/Cebu/Bohol/ Siquijor, was added to the list of dismantled guerilla fronts.

The four other dismantled guerilla fronts included the South East Front (SEF), Northern Negros Front (NNF), Central Negros (CN) 1 and Central Negros (CN) 2, which was already concurred through a resolution issued by the Joint Peace Security and Coordinating Committee (JPSCC), composed of the Armed Forces of the Philippines and National Police.

Javines said they are waiting for the concurrence of the AFP Visayas Command and JPSCCC to formalize the declaration of South West Front as a dismantled guerilla front.

The challenge for us, Javines said, is to prevent rebel remnants from recovering lost territories and recruit new members.

He added that the focused military operations are also ongoing against the remaining 10 members of the regional strike force of KR NCBS, aside from remnants of the five dismantled guerilla fronts.

The 3ID under the leadership of Maj. Gen. Marion Sison is targeting to declare Negros Island as “insurgency free” within the first quarter of this year.

Sison, Brig. Gen. Orlando Edralin, 303rd Infantry Brigade commander, and Lt. Col. Van Donald Almonte, 94th Infantry Battalion commander, were given recognition yesterday by the Armed Forces of the Philippines at Camp Aguinaldo in Quezon City, for the dismantling of CN2 guerilla unit, Javines said.

A guerilla front in a certain area is considered dismantled if its armed component is reduced to 8 to 10 members, the absence of their mass-based organizations, and they no longer have influenced areas, the implementation of government projects, and establishment of government territorial forces.

Declaring a guerilla front as dismantled does not necessarily mean that they will cease their operations against the NPA remnants, Javines said.

With the dismantling of Negros Island guerilla fronts, Negros Occidental Gov. Eugenio Jose Lacson, chair of the Regional Peace and Order Council of Western Visayas, said he expects rebel remnants to show that they are still active to give the impression that they are still a force to be reckoned with.

Lacson also said that the Philippine Army will continue to remain in areas where rebel remnants are still hiding.

Javines also said that the admission of the NPA in their involvement in a series of killings of innocent civilians that they accuse as military or police informants, and of their former comrades who abandoned the armed struggle in Negros Island, are part of their effort to show the people of Negros that they are still alive.

Military records indicate that almost all top leaders of KR NCBS have been neutralized, following their deaths in series of encounters in Negros Occidental last year.*

https://visayandailystar.com/npa-guerilla-fronts-in-island-dismantled-army/