BUTUAN CITY – The Army’s Third Special Forces Battalion (3rd SFBn) troops aborted the plan of the New People’s Army (NPA) to burn a newly constructed school of the Department of Education Indigenous People’s (DepEd-IP) in Simuwao area (Kilometer 9), Barangay Diatagon, Lianga town, Surigao del Sur province.
Civil Military Operations (CMO) Officer of the 3rd SFBn 1st Lt. Krisjuper Andreo J. Punsalan told The Manila Bulletin on Monday that the unit’s Community Support Program (CSP) team immediately responded to the report of highland villagers and proceeded to the area and secured DepEd-IP school.
A few highland villagers temporarily left their residences because of threat of the Communist terrorists, but were immediately secured by the military, the local government, and IP leaders.
The local government units (LGUs) and municipal disaster risk management office have coordinated with the IP leaders and barangay officials on the delivery of basic and social services for the temporary evacuation of conflict-affected communities in the sitios of barangay Diatagon.
Presently, the Lianga LGU has already provided relief goods through the Datu Dalong, Diatagon Tribal Chieftain, Punsalan said.
The Lianga LGU and its tribal council recently expressed strong support for the combat operations to confront the NPAs as part of the Peace, Law Enforcement and Development Support (PLEDS) Clusters’ effort to end local Communist armed conflict in Andap Valley.
“While other End Local Communist Armed Conflict (ELCAC) clusters focus on the development and delivery of basic services in Andap Valley, we allow the military to continuously perform their mandated duty to quell Communist NPA Terrorists (CNTs) through combat operations,” said Lianga IP Mandatory Representative (IPMR) Hawudon Jumar S. Bucales in the vernacular.
“The IP tribal council and the government will provide services to those who choose the path to peace and we will not tolerate the CNTs who don’t want to lay down their illegal firearms and continue to terrorize innocent IPs,“ he added.
The command group of the 3rd SFBn assured that the IP community was not the target or objective of any military operation but the NPAs, and vowed to exercise the rule of engagement and respect the international humanitarian law in performing their duties, Punsalan added.
Meanwhile, the LGU, IP council, and the military anticipated that Communist-linked militant groups will once again throw rehashed and false accusation of militarization and abuse, and will attempt to conduct “Taktikang Bakwit”, and appeal for pity to hamper and stop the of the NPA’s eventual collapse due to continuous combat operations and isolation to their mass bases in Surigao del Sur.