Rise of insurgency feared due to poverty

MALOLOS CITY – Increasing poverty incidence due to rising prices of basic commodities may reinvigorate insurgency in the countryside, retired Army Major General Jovito Palparan said Friday.

Palparan said that more people are expected to get poorer due to rising prices of basic commodities.

A former commanding general of the 7th Infantry Battalion based in Fort Magsaysay in Nueva Ecija who led an aggressive counter-insurgency drive in the region two years ago, Palparan believed that poverty is a major factor why people join insurgency.

However, he said people must distinguish the difference between poverty caused by oppression and world phenomenon.

“Dapat ding pag-isipan nila kung ano dahilan ng kahirapan tulad ngayon,” he said and noted that increasing prices like that of gas and shortage of rice supply are world phenomenon.

Palparan said that even other countries are experiencing high cost of fossil fuel and shortage of rice.

With regard to his involvement in the mining row in the mountain town of Doña Remedios Trinidad, Palparan said that he is open to extrajudicial settlement.

“Dapat mag-areglo na lang yung dalawang parties,” he said referring to the Soriano family whose members are in the middle of the legal battle.

The row became evident when Palparan and his men entered the stockyard of Ore Asia Mining and Development Corp. on April 12, for which they were charged of robbery, grave coercion and trespassing.

Apparently, Palparan was acting as consultant of 24-Hours Security Agency which was hired by the Oro Development Corp. II (Odeco II), the rival of its namesake Odeco I.

Ore Asia signed a contract with Odeco I to conduct iron ore mining in a 442-hectare land owned by the Sorianos, but is being contested in courts by Odeco II whose officials are from the Soriano clan as well. – Dino Balabo