The Internal Affairs Service of the Philippine National Police (PNP-IAS) has started deploying its inspection teams in communist rebel-infected areas to ensure field units are prepared for possible attacks by the New People’s Army (NPA), which will mark its 52nd anniversary on Dec. 26.
IAS Inspector General Alfegar Triambulo said the priorities of the inspections are police stations and community precincts in areas where communist rebels are known to operate and with a history of NPA attacks.
He said the inspection teams are composed of IAS personnel whose job is to ensure that all the defense strategies and intelligence-gathering measures are properly done in order to prevent any attacks.
In Western Visayas, IAS regional chief Col. Roger James Brillantes said they have already identified the areas considered to be prone to NPA attacks.
“We have already intensified the Red Teaming spot inspections in NPA-infested areas and threatened stations. This is part of the security measures for the coming founding anniversary of the NPA,” said Brillantes.
“This is to ensure operational readiness of PNP personnel in anticipation of any attacks that would be carried out by NPA units,” he added.
He cited the case in Tubungan town in Iloilo on Dec. 17, when NPA fighters detonated an improvised explosive device that hit a police car. All the policemen on board were not hurt.
On Dec. 15, two military trucks transporting relief goods for disaster victims hit a landmine in Barangay Sogoy in Castilla, Sorsogon while another rebel attack was reported in Samar.
Last week, PNP chief Gen. Debold Sinas alerted all police field units against ambushes and attempts to raid police stations, as well as attacks on government facilities.
“The CPP-NPA-NDF is known to launch high-profile hostilities to drumbeat commemoration of significant dates in the underground movement over the past five decades. The recent rash of hostile actions initiated by the CPP-NPA-NDF are all part of that long vicious cycle and 50-year tradition of violence of the local communist movement,” said Sinas.