BACOLOD CITY – The number of New People’s Army combatants, including the Regional Strike Force in Negros Occidental, has dropped to 33 from 258 in 2019, Brig. Gen. Orlando Edralin, commander of the 303rd Infantry Brigade, said.
Edralin said that the Central Negros 1, CN 2, and the Northern Negros Front (NNF) have been dismantled.
EDRALIN (Glazyl Masculino)
Thus, he said, the number of these guerilla fronts is now considered insignificant as they are only less than the size of squad.
Edralin said they are having difficulty in locating rebel remnants as their number decreases.
But he said they are establishing links with their relatives and friends and collaborate with different government agencies, especially local chief executives, to convince them to surrender through local peace engagements.
“We would not want more rebels to die, since we always wanted to settle and to end the local communist armed conflict through peaceful means,” Edralin said.
Based on the joint community evaluation of the Armed Forces of the Philippines and the Philippine National Police, Edralin said that the three dismantled NPA guerilla fronts, including those of the RSF, have 49 firearms left.
Just last month, the 79th IB recovered 16 high-powered firearms following series of clashes in Barangay Pinapugasan, Escalante City, Negros Occidental in which three NPA rebels were killed and three soldiers and a militiaman were wounded.
The 303rd IBde, which supervises the 79th, 62nd, and 94th Infantry Battalions, recently reported that 37 NPA rebels were killed in encounters in Negros Island last year until February 21.
A total of 87 rebels surrendered in the period and 148 high-powered firearms were recovered in 54 encounters.