Reds intensify ‘food extortion’ for rainy days

LAGANGILANG, Abra — Communist rebels are saving for the rainy days too.

Lt. Col. Juanito Dalmas, commander of the Army’s 17th Infantry Battalion based here, admitted that it is a standard practice of New People’s Army (NPA) guerrillas to "forage" for food in the mountains and in communities near their camps.

But police sightings of rebels, Dalmas said, confirmed that the insurgents have unusually heightened their "food collecting activities" in the Cordilleras.

The other week, 12 fully armed communist guerrillas led by one Ka Bantag, were spotted in Barangays Pang-ot, Villavieja and Namnogan, all in Pilar town, some three hours from this province’s capital town of Bangued.

The rebels were on a recruitment and "foraging" mission and left the three villages after three days, according to Superintendent Rimas Calixto, intelligence and investigation chief of the Cordillera police.

Five other fully armed guerrillas, reportedly headed by Marcos Aggalao alias Ka Billy, Franco and Monroe, were sighted in remote Sitio Gubang in Barangay Gawaan, Balbalan, Kalinga collecting foodstuffs from villagers, Calixto said.

Dalmas said Bantag’s group, which is based in Ilocos Sur, are trying to recruit villagers of nearby Abra towns.

The military commander, a native of upland Besao town in Mt. Province, said the rebels are extorting food from upland farmers who enjoy year-round harvest unlike their counterparts in the lowlands.

Meanwhile, Dalmas said counter-insurgency operations continue even during the rainy season. "In war, the Armed Forces and the NPA do not have a rainy season," he said.

This is so unlike the old military concept of a "summer offensive" where heightened counter-insurgency operations were conducted during the summer. When rains came, soldiers were confined to their camps unless a counter-action by rebels was imminent.

Defense Secretary Angelo Reyes has acknowledged the government’s "growing concern" on the increasing number of communist guerrillas in Northern and Central Luzon, reportedly up by seven percent.

In Masbate, Gov. Antonio Kho has asked the Southern Luzon Command (Solcom) to deploy more soldiers to the island-province as local officials assessed the insurgency situation there as "grave."

Kho made the request after convening the provincial peace and order council.

"The insurgency problem here is grave," said Kho, who personally asked Maj. Gen. Roy Kyamko, Solcom commander, to deploy the additional government troops in the towns of Aroroy, Baleno, Masbate, Mandaon, Balud, Milagros and Mobo where NPA rebels are believed concentrated.

Kho cited reports that suspected guerrillas in Ticao and the island-town of Burias have presented themselves as members of the Citizen Armed Forces Geographical Unit (CAFGU).

Last June 16, some 50 dissidents torched the barracks and heavy equipment of a construction firm in Barangay Luy-a in Aroroy town.

Three Army companies are currently stationed on the island-province. — With Celso Amo