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DAVAO CITY—The Armed Forces sent a mechanized infantry battalion
here to strengthen the campaign against communist rebels
in Compostela Valley province, where the New People’s
Army (NPA) has a significant presence.
Maj.
Arman Rico, spokesman for the Armed Forces Eastern
Mindanao Command, said the mechanized infantry battalion
arrived from Capas, Tarlac, on Sunday.
A
mechanized infantry battalion, he said, packs as much
firepower as a light infantry division.
The
battalion is composed of 214 personnel who brought with
them 24 armored vehicles and other personnel carriers,
as well as two field artillery batteries armed with
howitzers.
The
battalion would be based temporarily in Camp Panacan
here, the headquarters of the EastMinCom.
Rico
said that the battalion’s mission area is Compostela
Valley, whose four guerrilla fronts make the province
one of the heavily infiltrated provinces of the NPA.
More
guerrilla fronts are spread in the rest of the region
that has mountainous terrain in its northern and western
boundaries and interior areas.
The
deployment of the mechanized battalion “was in reaction
to clamor of governors and mayors of Southern Mindanao
to stop the criminal acts of [the NPAs],” Rico said.
He said
the military would “launch intensified operations in
known locations of bandits who keep on intimidating the
people and extorting their earnings.”
“The NPA
of before does not exist anymore. What we are
confronting today are extortionists, murderers and
robbers,” he said.
Earlier,
the Armed Forces sent augmentation forces in Masbate
following NPA attacks in that province.
Lt. Col.
Ernesto Torres, Armed Forces information officer, said
the additional troops would back the soldiers now
deployed in Masbate.
While
admitting that the NPA launched more attacks in Masbate,
and in Compostela Valley, in the past weeks, Torres said
these were just “plain and simple terroristic
activities” as the targets are police stations and other
installations.
“The
series of attacks in Compostela Valley are in support of
extortion activities because they are directed against
business establishments like Globe Telecom cell sites,”
he said.
“They
[communist guerrillas] just added police stations and
harassed soldiers to get weapons,” he added.
In
addition, Torres said the attacks were initiated by the
NPA “just to project strength and counter the claim that
its number is dwindling.”
“Their
strength is fast being depleted and so we are looking at
these attacks as a dire attempt on the part of the NPA
to project strength,” he said. (With Rene Acosta) |
