Abra villagers all set to fight militants

Tayum, Abra – Abra villagers are braving the threat of communist insurgency by enroling into the government’s fight against this decade old problem, the military claims.

Abra villagers have expressed their courage and determination to fight as 113 “Abrenians” voluntarily registered for the Basic Military Training (BMT) last week here.

They are now undergoing a three-month BMT under the collaborative efforts of the joint forces of the Philippine Army’s 41st and 77th Cadre Battalions led by Lt. Cols. Raul Bautista and Loreto Magunda­yao Jr., respectively.

What is ironic is, the venue of most of the three-month training period are conducted in the compound of the defunct Cellophil Resources Corp. in Barangay Gaddani, Tayum, Abra, the government-supported project in the 70’s that drove most of Abra’s young sons and daughters to the hills to fight.

“Former civilian volunteers in NPA-infested towns” the trainees were recruited by the 41st IB after they have reportedly cleared the areas from CPP-NPA particularly in the Ladalaga District where they come from. The district is composed of La Paz, Danglas and Lagayan towns.

These areas, the military said, are the most affected municipalities in the western part of the province because these are near the mountain ranges in the tri-boundaries of the provinces of Ilocos Sur and Ilocos Norte.

During the opening of the BMT, Lt. Col. Bautista stressed the two vital values inculcated into the would-be members of the Citizens Armed Forces Geographical Units (CAFGU) – training and discipline.  But above these two values, the officer said, is the consciousness that they are staking their lives, side-by-side with the soldiers, in order to uphold the basic rights and privileges of their ka-barangays as well as that of the people in other communities. 

Communist rebels “shadow government” in all barangays of an upland Abra town, some villages in an adjacent town and others more apparently exists.

Records seized by government troopers claim that “revolutionary taxes” are shelled out regularly by barangay units to the CPP-NPA coffers.

Taxation is a basic government function. Communist rebels claim “revolutionary taxation” is part of their governance in rebel-controlled areas.

“Documents seized confirm that all barangays of Lacub town, parts of Malibcong, Baay-Licuan, and Barangay Apao in Tineg regularly give P2,000 revolutionary taxes to the Abra Provincial Party Committee under a certain Edgardo Molina alias “Dong,” Cor­dillera police spokesman Superintendent Arni Emock said.