Over 200 Bicol villages eyed for gov’t programs

LEGAZPI CITY –– The government is targeting at least 272 villages in the Bicol region that are affected or influenced by insurgency for their social and economic programs, an official of the Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) said Friday.

Arnoldo Escober Jr., DILG Bicol assistant director, said of the 798 villages in the country identified as affected or influenced by insurgency, 34 percent or 272 villages are in the Bicol peninsula.

Escober, in a media forum, said these Bicol villages are among the priority areas for social and economic programs to be carried out through a convergence of efforts under the Whole-of-Nation-Approach to end the local communist armed conflict.

He said of the Bicol villages, 119 or 44 percent are in Masbate. The rest are in the five other provinces.

Colonel Aldwine Almase, the Army’s 9th Infantry Division chief of staff, said the military has validated these areas still considered lairs of the New People’s Army (NPA).

He said the military recently dismantled a guerrilla front in Camarines Norte.

The government’s war against insurgency had been running for 50 years, considered the “longest insurgency in the world,” Almanse said.

He said this year, military forces have stepped up their operations against the NPA. He said 22 rebels had died, 81 high-powered firearms recovered, and 32 villages cleared./lzb