‘PANAY PEACE SUMMIT’ Army: More surrenderers, dwindling rebel number

By Jennifer P. Rendon

Gains in the campaign against insurgency have been discerned since military and police authorities, along with other government agencies, started holding the Panay Peace Summit.

Brigadier General Marion Sison, Philippine Army’s 301st Infantry Brigade, declared this during the holding of the Panay Peace Summit 2022 at the Iloilo National High School campus in La Paz, Iloilo City.

The summit, which saw the attendance of around 1,200 youth people from all over the island, is a “large gathering of like-minded individuals who are in search for the meaning of true peace that starts from within.”

The participants include Reserve Officers’ Training Corps (ROTC) cadets, Kabataan Kontra Droga at Terrorismo (KKDAT) members, Youth Leadership Summit (YLS) participants, and students, among others.

The summit, which is done in collaboration with the 301st Infantry Brigade and the Police Regional Office (PRO)6, was first held in Passi City, Iloilo in December 2020.

Since then, Sison claimed they have noted a large number of surrenderers from the New People’s Army (NPA) rank and the withdrawal of support from their allies.

“There are around 38 NPA members who surrendered since the holding of the first PPS,” he said.

On top of that, 250 members of Militia ng Bayan and around 200 members of Sangay ng Partido sa Lokalidad withdrew support from the NPA.

In New Washington, Aklan, 37 members of fisherfolk group Pambansang Lakas Ng Kilusang Mamamalakaya Ng Pilipinas (PAMALAKAYA) and Anakpawis allegedly support the government.

These breakthroughs, Sison claimed, happened partly because of movements like Panay Peace Summit.

For this year’s summit, Sison said they focused on the youth sector because they are deemed as the usual and vulnerable targets of NPA recruitment.

“Ang mga kabataan ang naging focus nag CPP-NPA because there is an immediate need for their group to fill in their dwindling numbers,” he said.

In 2020, the 301st IB pegged the numbers of NPA armed combatants in Panay to be more than 200.

But current estimates showed that their number is down to 120.

Most of these rebels are found in Southern Panay, particularly in the 1st district of Iloilo, and in Central Panay like in the towns of Calinog, Iloilo and Tapaz, Capiz.

Some are also in Libacao, Aklan.

It also did not help that NPAs suffered big blows because of several encounters.

“They need to recruit but they have a hard time recruiting sa ating mga kanayunan because of sustained CSP,” he said.

The Community Support Program or CSP is a people-centered program, which aims to bring peace and development in conflict-affected barangays. It is an initiative of state forces to bring the government closer to the people through an immediate delivery of basic services, especially to grassroots communities.

Sison said that military and police personnel continuously do CSP initiatives in Panay Island.

The NPAs are trying to agitate the youth into shifting to their ideology but “from the looks of it, they have miserably failed,” Sison said.