"We are starting to become conscious of our safety and security," said Francis Mendita, head of the drilling team dispatched by the PNOC’s Energy Development Corp. (EDC) to the Victoria Well-3 located in Barangay Masalasa here.
Masalasa is about five kilometers east of the town proper and located within the provincial boundaries of Tarlac and Nueva Ecija provinces. Adjacent to the barangay are villages where there have been reports of insurgent activities perpetrated by armed guerrillas of the communist-led New People’s Army (NPA). The village is also a few kilometers away from Mt. Arayat in Pampanga, where rebels have been noted to be maintaining "rest and recreation" areas.
Actually, there are other rebel groups operating within the Tarlac-Nueva Ecija boundaries, such as the remnants of the defunct Hukbong Mapagpalaya ng Bayan (HMB) of the old Partido Komunista ng Pilipinas (PKP); the NPA breakaway group, Rebolusyonaryong Hukbong Bayan (RHB); and a band of former communist guerrillas called Rebolusyonaryong Gerilya ng Arayat (RGA).
The NPA, however, remains to be the biggest armed rebel group threatening the Tarlac-Nueva Ecija boundary.
According to Mendita, in order to avoid any form of harassment from these rebel organizations, operations at the Victoria Well-3 have been kept under wraps since these were started in December last year, and were disclosed to the public only after natural gas was finally detected at the site early last February. Since then, a lot of people have been visiting the site, which, Mendita however said, caused "unnecessary disturbances" to their work.
He added that they are now considering a ban on media visits, claiming that this is imperative in order not to compromise their safety and security. — Benjie Villa