BACOLOD City – The military’s Joint Task Force (JTF) Negros looks forward to dismantling two of the Communist Party of the Philippines-New People’s Army (CPP-NPA) rebel fronts on the island by the end of the year.
Brigadier General Eric Vinoya, JTF-Negros commander, said on Friday the aim is take down the communist-terrorist group’s northern and central Negros fronts.
“Our target for the northern Negros front and the central Negros front is up to the end of this year,” he added.
Vinoya said the fast-tracked operations for the rest of the NPA’s fronts on the island will follow next year.
“The target given by the President is until the end of his term,” he added.
The Army maintains two brigades in the Negros Island: The 303rd Infantry Brigade based in Murcia, Negros Occidental led by Brigadier General Benedict Arevalo, who supervises the 94th, 79th, and 62nd infantry battalions (IB); and the 302IB stationed in Tanjay City, Negros Oriental headed by Colonel Noel Baluyan.
Vinoya said as the head of JTF-Negros, he is tasked to expedite the ending of local communist armed conflict in Negros through various efforts, including focused military operations, community support programs, and working with the Provincial Task Force on Ending Local Communist Armed Conflict (PTF-ELCAC) in the two provinces.
“With those two provincial task forces, there will be a whole-of-nation approach already. There is collaboration not only from the security forces but also from local government units and national government agencies,” he added.
In Negros Occidental alone, there is a continued presence of the CPP-NPA cadres mainly in the first, fifth and six districts, although the military said their number has dwindled in recent years.
The forming of the PTF-ELCAC is in compliance with President Rodrigo Duterte’s Executive Order (EO) 70.
Under EO 70, there is a shift from a traditional military-centric approach to a civilian-led way in confronting the communist terrorist groups (CTGs) to a whole-of-nation approach, in which the military solution should be just one of the many components in addressing the communist insurgency.(With a report from PNA/PN)
