Davao de Oro Gov. Tyron Uy | PHOTO: Tyron Uy official facebook page
ILIGAN CITY—Davao de Oro Gov. Tyron Uy said he expected the number of communist New People’s Army (NPA) in the province to dwindle further as more community development activities are introduced in the villages.
Uy noted that the P1.3 billion that the national government poured into the province in 2021 for 65 villages under its Support to Barangay Development Program overseen by the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC) had helped the Army’s drive to deny the rebels of community sympathizers.
The NTF-ELCAC’s support package comes after a village is cleared of NPA presence by the Army. The development actions are supposed to consolidate the community behind the anti-insurgency drive, ensuring, at least, that the guerrillas will no longer re-establish their presence.
“Village officials used to be fearful of the NPA,” said Uy, emphasizing that today, they are taking an active part in the rollout of community development projects and also providing timely information about the presence of armed men.
Brig. Gen. Jesus Durante III, commander of the Army’s 1001st Infantry Brigade, acknowledged that “the insurgency involves a host of social issues, so, we have to resolve all these.”
Durante said the Regional Operations Command (ROC) of the NPA’s Southern Mindanao Regional Committee had been sighted in Davao de Oro since November last year in a bid to keep their presence in the province.
According to Durante, the ROC forces, which the Army estimated to number 36 armed fighters, have clashed with them 12 times from Dec. 10, 2021 to Feb. 24 this year in the hinterlands of Mabini, Pantukan, Maco, and New Bataan towns.
The Feb. 24 clashes have become controversial after two of the five fatalities were volunteer teachers of Lumad kids in Mindanao.
Durante explained that the ROC, which used to be in the Bukidnon and Agusan del Sur boundaries, is coming to the aid of the two remaining NPA guerrilla fronts in Davao de Oro beleaguered by military offensives.
He said Davao de Oro is strategic for the NPA as it earned big in the collection of so-called revolutionary taxes, which the government dubs as simple extortion, from contractors of government infrastructure projects, and operators of plantations, among others.
But Durante was confident the rebels would be flushed out within the remaining four months of the Duterte administration.
Davao de Oro’s hinterland communities used to be NPA strongholds, hosting seven of the 17 guerrilla fronts in the Davao region.
Today, there are only five throughout the region, two of which are in Davao de Oro. The one based in Laak town has 28 fighters, while that in New Bataan has 18, said Durante.
Durante noted that NPA momentum and morale in the province have nosedived since the killing on Jan. 5 of Menardo Villanueva, acknowledged as a legendary pioneer of the Maoist guerrilla war.
Villanueva headed the NPA in the region and its National Operations Command.