Army declares 42 towns in Eastern Visayas as rebel-free

TACLOBAN CITY, Nov. 26 (PNA) -– In the past two years, the Philippine Army has declared 42 towns in Eastern Visayas as insurgency-free, raising military’s confidence that the region will attain the rebel-free status by next year.

In a report to the Regional Development Council (RDC) development administration committee, Lt. Col. Ferdinand Bajarin, assistant chief of staff for intelligence of the Army’s 8th Infantry Division (8th ID) said that of the 42 areas, nine are in Northern Samar, four in Samar, four in Eastern Samar and 25 in Leyte.

“This is in line with our effort to declare Samar, Eastern Samar, Northern Samar and Leyte as insurgency-free by 2016,” Bajarin said.

Since October 2013, declared as insurgent-free are the towns of Allen, Biri, Capul, San Antonio, San Vicente, Rosario, Lavezares, San Jose, and San Roque in Northern Samar; Alamagro, Tagapul-an, Sto. Nino, and Daram in Samar; Guiuan, Mercedes, Lawaan, and Salcedo in Eastern Samar.

In Leyte, listed as rebel-free are Palompon, Bato, Matalom, Inopacan, Tabon-tabon, Dulag, Julita, Babatngon, Tabango, Abuyog, Mahaplag, Hindang, Barugo, San Miguel, Leyte, Pastrana, Hilongos, Tolosa, Mayorga, Matag-ob, Merida, Dagami, Calubian, Sta. Fe, and Alangalang.

These areas have been jointly declared as free from threats of New People’s Army (NPA) by local government units and Army battalions in the region.

Bajarin admitted that NPA remained a major security threat in the region since it is undertaking terrorist activities such as murder, extortion, ambuscade, raid and mass mobilizations.

However, the organization has been weakening in the past few years as it is not anymore capable of launching major attacks.

“This year, there were only two ambush incidents in Samar provinces. With those enemy activities, we could already see that that insurgency in Eastern is on the downtrend,” he added.

Lt. Col. Rodrigo Ilustrisimo, chief of the 8th ID Communication-Electronics and Information Systems, said that more towns will be declared as insurgency-free before the end of 2015 and early next year.

“We are on track of making Eastern Visayas insurgency-free by 2016. This has been done by bridging the gap between government and populace,” Ilustrisimo said.

The official emphasized the value of building roads to provide access for the delivery of services, bring trade opportunities, and contribute to peace and order efforts. (PNA)
LAP/SARWELL Q. MENIANO