Southern Leyte free of insurgents, say officials

MAASIN CITY—Officials have declared Southern Leyte insurgency-free but soldiers will stay in the province until its police force becomes ready for the task of maintaining peace and order without military participation.

Members of the council, headed by top officials of the province, and a top officer of the military’s Central Command (Centcom) signed a document declaring Southern Leyte free of communist guerrillas.

Gov. Damian Gaviola Mercado, Vice Gov. Miguel Maamo II and Lt. Gen. Ralph Villanueva, Centcom commanding general, signed the declaration.

The signing ceremony was witnessed by all the province’s mayors and other top military officers.

Lt. Col. Christopher Tampus, Centcom public information officer, said Southern Leyte was declared insurgency-free because three years have passed without a guerrilla being sighted or a guerrilla attack being reported anywhere in the province.

“A province is categorized as insurgency-free when the threat posed by the New People’s Army is successfully downgraded into a mere law and order problem,” Tampus said on Monday.

Southern Leyte is the sixth province in the Visayas declared as insurgency-free. The five others are Biliran, Bohol, Cebu, Guimaras and Siquijor.

Tampus, however, said soldiers would stay in the province until the military has formally turned over the role of maintaining peace and order to police and civilian authorities.

The provincial board, said Tampus, has passed a resolution supporting the declaration of Southern Leyte as insurgency-free.

Lieutenant General Villanueva, in a press statement, said local governments play a key role in the counterinsurgency campaign.

“The main factor which led to the declaration of Southern Leyte as an insurgent-free province is the determination, commitment and sincerity of the stakeholders especially the local chief executives in solving insurgency problems,” said the general’s statement.