CLARK FREEPORT, Pampanga—The influence of the New People’s Army in Central Luzon, its birthplace, is now waning as the region becomes “insurgency-free, peaceful, and ready for further economic development.”
Maj. Gen. Angelito de Leon, commanding general of the 7th Infantry Division of the Philippine Army, stressed this during the regular meeting of the Regional Peace and Order Council or RPOC here.
De Leon, whose division is based at Fort Ramon Magsaysay in Palayan City, Nueva Ecija, said the region’s leaders “must now work together to maintain such condition and prevent insurgency from infiltrating the area.”
The council is chaired by Bataan Gov. Albert Raymond S. Garcia, who is also working “not only for an insurgency-free region, but also one free from graft and corruption and illegal drugs,” he said.
De Leon said Pampanga and Bataan led the provinces who have been “liberated” from insurgency, and the general hopes the other Central Luzon provinces follow suit.
Only the remnants of the Communist Party of the Philippines and its military arm, the NPA, are operating in the region, involved in extortion activities “to survive,” the general said.
The CPP-NPA are engaging in on-and-off peace talks with the government.
The NPA was organized on March 29, 1969 inside the Hacienda Luisita in Concepcion, Tarlac by Bernabe Buscayno, alias Commander Dante, and Jose Maria Sison, the CCP’s founder.
However, Buscayno was captured in 1977 in Mexico, Pampanga by two young constabulary officers—who are now Rep. Amado Espino of Pangasinan and former Philippine National Police Director General Arturo Lumibao.
Buscayno was released by President Corazon Aquino in 1987, and now lives peacefully in Tarlac.
Sison is now based in the Netherlands, and is engaging the present administration in peace talks.
Meanwhile, Chief Supt. Aaron Aquino, director of the Police Regional Office III here, said the PNP’s Operation Double Barrel has been effective in the campaign against illegal drugs and other forms of criminality in the region.
Aquino said under Operation Double Barrel, about 1,876 households were visited, resulting in the arrest of 49 suspected drug personalities now undergoing treatment in the different rehabilitation centers in the region.
Renewed police operations against illegal drugs in the first quarter of 2017 led to the arrest of 161 suspected drug personalities, with 16 killed during the encounters with the raiding police teams out of 114 total operations.
To speed up the rehabilitation of drug victims in their respective areas, Garcia said the region’s governors also asked for more rehabilitation programs and subsidy from the Philippine Health Insurance Corp., especially in the municipal level to assist local governments in their fight against illegal drugs.
