39 election, 35 rebel hotspots in Visayas

CEBU, Philippines - Security officials yesterday said that out of the 114 areas in the Visayas that they are closely monitoring, 39 are identified as election hotspots while 35 others are considered insurgency hotspots.

According to Central Command chief, Lt. Gen. Ralph Villanueva, the 39 areas are placed under category 1 which, he said, refers to places with history of election-related violence and intense political rivalry.

On the other hand, the other 35 areas are placed under category 2, which are areas considered to have been influenced by Communist Party of the Philippines-New People’s Army.

“But we continue evaluating on these areas,” Villanueva said, adding that they are focusing on these areas because they want a clean and honest elections for the voters to be able to elect officials who can serve them well and do something on the insurgency matters.

In a joint conference of the Armed Forces of the Philippines and the Philippine National Police yesterday at headquarters of the Central Command at the Camp Lapu-Lapu, officials of both agencies promised to reduce insurgency problems in the Visayas as part of the preparations for the May 2010 elections.

Villanueva said that part of their actions to achieve this goal is by updating the Internal Security Operation (ISO) campaign which started on 2006.

According to Police Regional Office-7 director, Chief Supt. Lani-o R. Nerez, they continue assessing the ISO in all parts of the Visayas.

“It is going on softly… we are slowly but surely degrading the influence of rebels…we have trained members of the organization which are assigned on those places,” he added.

Nerez said that the main focus of the police is the Negros Island and the police play a role in support to the success of the ISO campaign of AFP.

Maj. Gen. Vicente M. Porto, AFP commanding general, disclosed that in Western Visayas, particularly in Iloilo, they have continued security operations but reminded everyone that the rebels are coming nearer to the city.

Aside from controlling the insurgency, Villanueva said that part of their monitoring is to include Visayas as a part of their election watchlist. 

Villanueva reported that from 21, they were able to reduce the number of the guerilla fronts in the Visayas to only eight. He added that from 630 barangays affected by insurgencies, the number went down to 17.

So far, the police have recorded 419 persons arrested for violating the gun ban resolution with 366 firearms confiscated and 146 cases filed against the violators. — Marjun Baguio with Dorothy Mae Acabo and Sheila Marie Catacutan, Negros Oriental State University interns/WAB   (FREEMAN NEWS)