MANILA, Philippines?Like any other 11-year-old, Jinky Estancia loves to play and watch her favorite cartoon show on TV. The frail, dark-skinned Grade 5 pupil is eager to go to school everyday and wants to be a professional someday, a teacher maybe.

That?s far from what she was a year ago, when she hated going to school and would be easily startled by sudden noise. She would cower and bury herself against the skirt of her mother when she heard a bang like that of a gunshot.

?She would even scream and cry upon hearing sounds from a gun. I and my wife would then embrace her tightly, assuring her that she is safe and nobody is harming her anymore,? Alex, a farmer, said of his daughter.

The Estancia couple and their four children live in a two-house compound (actually a house and a hut) along the winding and unpaved road in Sitio Palina, Barangay San Isidro, Monkayo, in Compostela Valley.

The community of just over a dozen of houses is a virtual serene upland hamlet; the occasional whirr of skylabs (motorcycles fitted with wing-like spans to carry more riders used as main mode of public transport) cuts the morning silence.

Residents subsist either as farmers or gold miners in mining sites in neighboring towns. Technology has yet to fully engulf the place; only a handful of homes have TVs and cellular phones do not operate for lack of signal.

Its peace is sometimes disturbed, with tragic results.

The New People?s Army (NPA) is known to operate in the area, resulting in sporadic fighting between the communist insurgents and government soldiers and militiamen.

Neighbors vs neighbors

Many young people have been drawn into the fighting, some enlisting as members of the Citizen Armed Forces Geographical Unit (Cafgu) and some as Red fighters.

It?s like neighbors against neighbors, observed Magdalena, Alex?s wife.

Her classmates in the elementary, Wilmar and Amay, dropped out of school and eventually joined the movement. ?We used to see them sneak out during classes and train on hand-to-hand fighting at the school grounds,? Magdalena recounted.

Now in her late 20s, Magdalena said she was surprised when Wilmar and several others eventually stopped schooling and were not seen in the village anymore.

Until several years later, she said in the vernacular, she saw ?many armed men? visit her village once. ?I was told they?re NPA. I was to figure out that some of them are my former classmates, Wilmar and Amay.?

Amay, Magdalena would learn later, was the rebel leader known as Ka (Comrade) Jinggoy, a battle-tested guerrilla she used to know as the ?soft-spoken, almost silent? younger playmate Elizalde Cañete.

As the erstwhile leader of the NPA?s Front Committee 3, Cañete led some of the most high-profile rebel operations in Compostela Valley in recent years, according to the military.

On April 26, 2008, government troops and some civilians coming from a village fiesta were ambushed while walking along the dirt road in Sitio Palina. Five soldiers and militiamen were killed and many others wounded.

Among those wounded were Jinky and her then 7-year-old sibling Rebecca. A bullet grazed Jinky?s forehead, just several centimeters from her eye. Rebecca had less-threatening injuries.

The rebels attended to their wounds and reportedly gave the family a substantial amount for hospitalization.

Other attacks allegedly mounted by Jinggoy?s group happened in Compostela Valley.

Also in San Isidro, Jinggoy?s men were said to be responsible in shooting to death a militiaman in August 2007 while the victim and a soldier were fetching water at a well, a kilometer from the militia detachment beside the Estancia residence.

The rebels captured the soldier, Pfc. Marjun Gatela, after a brief firefight and held him captive for several months, setting off a string of NPA abductions of soldiers and policemen in the province and frantic appeals from local officials to free them.

?NPA-infested?

The military has considered San Isidro and most of the province ?NPA-infested? areas, and local officials have placed top priority on solving the problem.

Considered rich in mineral resources, particularly gold and timber, Compostela Valley has become a virtual magnet to insurgency. According to the military, more than P10 million are collected yearly by the rebels in ?revolutionary taxes? from businesses, mining companies and banana plantations in the province alone.

The Mt. Diwalwal gold rush area in Monkayo town, and other gold-rich areas are said to have also pumped life into the local insurgency; with the rebels either ?sidelining? as miners and tunnel guards or collecting outright ?taxes? from tunnel owners.

?They have ceased to function as a revolutionary movement. They?re just plain extortionists,? Maj. Randolph Cabangbang, Eastern Mindanao Command spokesperson, had said in previous interviews.

Gov. Arturo Uy said the seemingly unending NPA problem has put the province in a bad light, scaring away investors and disrupting people?s lives, especially those living in upland villages where the rebels hold sway.

Just how strong is the NPA is in Compostela Valley?

7 rebel fronts

According to Maj. Ferdie Napuli, commander of the Army?s 3rd Special Forces Battalion, a succession of military offensives since last year had reduced the rebel strength in the province. Police disclose seven rebel fronts (platoons) with just over 200 men and a similar number of firearms.

In a briefing at the provincial capitol, Napuli said the pouring in of troops was aimed at ?neutralizing? the rebels ?into inconsequential levels.?

President Macapagal-Arroyo has tabbed 2010 as the deadline for the military to crush the communist insurgency. But like other places where the NPA is active, the communist insurgency in Compostela Valley could be still around even after.

For one, life in communities like in San Isidro is still difficult. Hard life breeds discontent, and a slight provocation could persuade poor farmers to join the rebels, a village official, who requested anonymity, warned.

?The government should see to it that all the basic services are given to depressed communities like in San Isidro. These places are most vulnerable to exploitation from groups. Let not the people see even a single reason to gripe against the government,? he said in the vernacular.

The government responded with the pouring in of many projects in areas said to be ?NPA-influenced.?

Infrastructure projects

Last year, the province received 40 of the 59 infrastructure projects from the P76.9 million poured by the Department of National Defense?s Kalayaan sa Barangay Program (KBP) in Davao region.

But insurgency persists despite the military efforts to win the support of the local population.

Since its creation in 1998, Compostela Valley has seen some of the fiercest fighting between government and NPA forces.

In 2001, 18 soldiers and militiamen were killed when guerrillas waylaid an Army patrol in Barangay Andap, New Bataan town.

In 2008, six soldiers, including a junior officer, died when rebels detonated a land mine in another ambush also in Andap.

A similar number of rebels have also been killed.

As casualties from both sides continue to rise, so does the toll on civilians. In March 2007, 9-year-old Grecil Buya was shot dead when soldiers and NPA guerrillas figured in an encounter in Barangay Kahayag, also in New Bataan.

Death of a child

The military earlier tagged the Grade 3 pupil as a child-combatant of the NPA; an M-16 rifle allegedly found beside her body was the supposed proof. Later, it retracted its claim, saying she was killed in a crossfire and that NPA bullets might have caused her death.

Grecil?s family maintained that she was never an NPA member.

Several local officials said to be supporters of the government?s anti-insurgency campaign have been murdered. So were several peasant leaders, activists and members of progressive groups tagged by the military as communist sympathizers.

The father of Ka Jinggoy was also a victim of one of the alleged anti-NPA killings.

The military also drew flak from government and private groups for alleged human rights violations committed in areas where it has considerable presence.

In New Bataan, for example, the Karapatan Southern Mindanao has called for the pullout of troops, alleging soldiers have been camping out near residential areas, setting up barangay defense system (BDS) checkpoints and turning neighborhoods and school grounds into virtual barracks.

Renewed AFP drive

The military has renewed its campaign against the NPA in the province. On Jan. 30, Jinggoy was captured by government forces when he was wounded in an encounter in an upland village in Laak town. Three of his comrades, among them 34-year-old Ka Wilmar, were killed.

Jinggoy?s arrest was a big victory for the military, according to Brig. Gen. Eduardo del Rosario, 1003rd Infantry Brigade commander. ?This (arrest) dented the (NPA?s) capability in the area,? Del Rosario said.

?The group under him is now leaderless,? said Col. Dominador Tutaan, another brigade officer.

But for Senior Supt. Aaron Aquino, Compostela Valley police chief, the capture does not mean the end of insurgency in his province. ?It?s a big blow to the NPA, but definitely a new leader will likely emerge and continue the fight,? he warned.

When Magdalena heard the news about Jinggoy?s capture and the death of her two neighbors, she could not help but take pity on them.

?Wilmar was my playmate. I also knew Amay,? she said, stroking Rebecca?s hair. While Jinky sat on a wooden chair beside, the young girl was scratching the fingernails of both her hands.

Alex, who was cooking lunch at their outdoor kitchen, said: ?I?m saddened that some of my neighbors have died violently. But Jinggoy had to answer all his crimes.?

?My children were just lucky to have survived in that ambush. It would have been difficult for us now if Jinky and Rebecca were killed,? he said.