Army’s 3ID to build up legal, armed offensive to dismantle rebel fronts

By Jennifer P. Rendon

 

On top of relentless pursuit operations, the Philippine Army’s 3rd Infantry Division declared that it would strengthen its legal offensives in a bid to dismantle the remaining fronts of the Community Party of the Philippines-New People’s Army (CPP-NPA).

In a press conference on Tuesday, Major Cenon Pancito, 3rd ID spokesperson, said that the 3ID is building up its legal team in support of the armed offensives, as they conduct internal security operations (ISOs).

“Why legal offensives? Because sometimes dehado kami sa ganyang aspeto. We should be able to haul them to court and prosecute them,” he said.

Pancito said there are several incidents in the past where NPA perpetrators were not criminally held liable for their acts.

“Hindi naman pwedeng quits na lang ang ginawa nila. They should be held answerable before the proper forum and we could do that by strengthening our own legal team,” he said.

As to the armed offensives, Pancito said soldiers have been relentlessly pursuing rebels, with the aid of reports and information given by the populace.

“The information and help they provided us in tracking these rebels have been a key factor why we had encounters with the communist terrorist group,” he said.

Even earlier, the 3rd ID declared an intensified ISO in both Negros and Panay islands.

In Panay Island, the 3rd ID’s goal is to topple the NPA’s Central Front before the end of 2020 or early 2021.

Central Front mainly covers the municipality of Maasin, Lambunao, Janiuay, and Calinog in Iloilo; and Tapaz in Capiz province.

Presently, Panay Island has two fronts remaining – the Central Front and the Southern Front.

On the other hand, Negros Island has five fronts – the North Negros Front, the Central Negros 1 Front, the Central Negros 2 Front, the SouthWest Negros Front, and Southeast Negros Front.

“Based on the documents we recovered during operations, the Southwest Negros Front has already been dismantled. However, we still need a formal declaration on that after it will go through a process,” Pancito said.

He said that they initially thought that the North Negros Front will be dismantled among the five fronts.

An NPA group could be considered as a front if it has at least 50 members.

In some instances, documents taken from the NPAs would reveal that they have abandoned the fronts because of lack of manpower.

Another factor was they no longer had influence on barangays where they used to operate.

Based on 3rd ID records, there are 81 rebel-influenced barangays in Western Visayas.

Forty-seven are in Panay Island while 34 are in Negros Occidental province.