• GILBERT P. BAYORAN
The Philippine Army’s 3rd Infantry Division is targeting to declare a stable internal peace and security (SIPS) status for Western Visayas by September this year, its commander, Maj. Gen. Marion Sison, said.
Negros Island was already placed in SIPS status, following the dismantling of five New People’s Army (NPA) guerrilla fronts, including the neutralization of its key leaders, who were either killed or captured in gunbattle or law enforcement operations, and its mass-based organizations, and clearing of all insurgency- affected barangays.
Last week, three top leaders of the NPA’s Komiteng Rehiyonal (KR)-Panay in a series of clashes with soldiers in Iloilo, among them were secretary Vicente Hinojales, deputy secretary Maria Concepcion “Concha” Araneta Bocala, and Panay Central Front (CF) secretary Vivian Torato Teodosio.
Bocala, a resident of Barangay Pueblo, Manduriao, Iloilo City, has a P5.3- million bounty for her arrest as she was convicted for murder.
Seven other leaders of KR-Panay and Panay CF also died in a series of encounters with the 61st and 12th Infantry Battalions in Lambunao and Calinog in Iloilo earlier this month.
“The deaths of Bocala, Hinojales and Teodosio, along with several other high-ranking officials of KR-Panay and the weakened CF, mark an end to the decades-long insurgency in Panay,” Sison said.
He lauded the operating infantry units of 301st Infantry Brigade under the leadership of Brig. Gen. Michael Samson for their relentless effort, commitment and perseverance in the conduct of focus military operations to put an end to local communist armed conflict, particularly in Panay.
He also attributed the success of these combat operations to the effective, efficient and seamless implementation of Executive Order No. 70, which institutionalizes the whole-of-nation approach in ending the local communist armed conflict. | GB
