Military: Reducing the number of NPA rebels in EV has become their
TACLOBAN CITY- Reducing the members of the rebel group New People’s Army into an “inconsequential level” has become the “goal” of the government troops in Eastern Visayas as one military officer in the region admitted but fully eliminating the rebels would not be achieved within the target set.
But by reducing the rebels operating in Eastern Visayas, particularly in Samar provinces, into just inconsequential level would make them hard to stage any attack and even conduct any recruitment, Maj. Leo Madroñal, chief of the civil military office of the 8th Infantry Division, said.
“We cannot really totally eliminate the NPA in the region but we are aiming to reduce them into an inconsequential level by December 2009 as directed by President Macapagal-Arroyo,” Madroñal said.
And by reducing the rebels into that level would mean that they could no longer stage any attack against the military and conduct their recruitment activity, the military official said.
He insisted that they are on their way of achieving their goal.
President Arroyo had repeatedly directed the military in the region, which is under the leadership of Maj. Gen. Arthur Tabaquero, to quell the insurgency problem in the region citing it as one factor why Eastern Visayas remains a depressed region.
And to achieve their goal, “constant” military operations would be conducted against the rebels in the region which he said only numbers less than 500 fully armed members, the chief of the civil military office of the 8th ID said.
And those rebel armed group are operating in the Samar Island as the provinces of Leyte, Southern Leyte and Biliran, the other provinces of Eastern Visayas, have been declared as “insurgency free” which means only a handful of rebels are operating in these provinces.
“But while we will have our constant (armed) operations, we will also continue our civil-military operations, especially in remote barangays…to help achieve development on these areas,” Madroñal said.
He also said that symposiums and seminars against the “evil” of the insurgency will also be held especially in schools and campuses to counter any recruitment activities being conducted by the rebels.
Familiarity with the terrain and the continued “sympathy” by some village folks were the two reasons cited by Madroñal why the military could not totally eliminate the rebel group in the region.
“But we hope that they will just return to the folds of the law by surrendering,” he said.
The military would also put up an integrated territorial system in villages that were previously identified as “NPA controlled or influenced.”
This way, those villages would no longer be controlled or influenced by the enemies, the military officer said.
“Those barangays are already cleared by the military,” he said. He, however, could not say how many barangays have been cleared by them.
He said that there are less than 50 barangays in the entire Samar Island which are still believed to be under the “control or influence” of the rebel group.
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