And the 7th ID’s next targets, according to Col. Ricardo Visaya, commander of the 69th Infantry Battalion, are the insurgents in Bataan and Aurora and the "remnants" of the New People’s Army (NPA) in Tarlac.
Palparan led some 1,000 barangay officials and former NPA regulars and sympathizers in a peace rally here yesterday.
The rallyists converged at a covered court in Barangay Mabiga and joined a motorcade that proceeded to the municipal hall.
Similar rallies were held simultaneously in Pandi in Bulacan and Peñaranda in Nueva Ecija. Two weeks ago, Palparan led a similar anti-communist rally in Angeles City.
In an interview with The STAR before he spoke to the rallyists, Palparan urged his successor to continue the anti-insurgency campaign he has been waging in Central Luzon since he took over as 7th ID commander exactly a year before his retirement on Sept. 11.
"I would say that NPA presence and influence has already been reduced by at least 95 percent in Pampanga, Tarlac, and Bulacan," he said.
He said the three provinces, along with Nueva Ecija, used to be the "central gravity" of the NPA, the military arm of the Communist Party of the Philippines.
Palparan, blamed by militant groups for "political killings" and other human rights violations in the region, however, placed NPA reduction in Nueva Ecija at 90 percent.
He boasted though that the Nueva Ecija towns of Lupao, Cuyapo and Guimba and Palayan City have been totally cleared of insurgents.
"I initially wanted to launch the anti-insurgency campaign simultaneously in Pampanga and Bulacan, but I had a shortage of men so it had to be done one after the other," he said.
He said his successor has to take care of 40 percent of the anti-insurgency work in Tarlac.
Palparan declined to say who would likely replace him as 7th ID commander so as not to preempt President Arroyo, who is the Armed Forces commander-in-chief.
He, however, said his successor should work "fast-paced" in pursuing the anti-insurgency campaign already in place in Central Luzon.
He said the NPA guerrillas in Pampanga, Bulacan, Nueva Ecija and Tarlac have been pushed to the "peripheral areas" in Bataan, Zambales, and Aurora. The next 7th ID commander should take care of these places, he added.
During the peace rally here, Visaya touted the "downfall of communism" in Central Luzon, saying the rebels’ "most important logistics sources" — the provinces of Pampanga, Bulacan, and Nueva Ecija — "are about to be totally ‘de-influenced.’"
"We have considerably decreased their strongholds, freedom of movement, physical strength and the will to fight," he said.
Visaya said the provinces of Bataan, Tarlac, and Aurora "will follow."
"No amount of black propaganda against the military can ever destroy us again," he said.
"It will be very hard for them (NPA rebels) to regain the support of the masses who already have a clear picture of them. Although they can still use threat and intimidation, the people now know how to protect themselves and fight them," he added. — With James Mananghaya