ILOILO City – The Armed Forces of the Philippine aims to clear 81 rebel-infested barangays across Western Visayas by 2021.
“We are really serious in cleansing these affected villages,” said Major Cenon Pancito III, spokesperson of the Philippine Army’s 3rd Infantry Division.
Of the 81 villages, Pancito said 47 are in Panay Island and 34 are in Negros Occidental.
He declined to identify the barangays but he said these were far-flung.
Western Visayas is made up of 4,051 barangays.
Pancito said the 3ID continues to deploy all its community support program teams as primary tool in clearing villages with a strong presence of New People’s Army (NPA) rebels.
According to Pancito, a barangay can be deemed “cleared” of insurgents if there are no more communist-terrorist groups in it.
“There are still seven [New People’s Army] fronts operating in the region including two in Panay, the Southern and Central Fronts,” said Pancito.
The Southern Front covers the 1st District of Iloilo and some portions of Antique while the Central Front covers the 3rd District of Iloilo and some portions of Tapaz, Capiz.
“Actually, there are three guerilla fronts in Panay – the South East Front – operating in the towns of Sara and Ajuy, but it was dismantled. If the front has only 15 members, they could not continue operating. They thus join other fronts,” Pancito said.
Meanwhile, the rebel fronts in Negros Island are the North Negros Front, Central Negros Front 1 and 2, South West Front, and South East Front.
According to Pancito, the communist insurgency is an “immediate” political security threat that must be resolved in the last two years of President Rodrigo Duterte’s term.
The Army official disclosed the national government’s plan to give P20 million to each barangay cleared of rebels and P1.5 million to threatened-barangays.
This financial assistance is under the P16-billion “Barangay Development Program” of the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict.
“Our people deserve a better country free from the terroristic activities of these rebels,” Pancido said./PN
