EDITORIAL - Significant presence

Policemen and military personnel in Central Visayas are now on full alert against attacks from the New People’s Army in line with the communist rebels’ founding anniversary. Troops are now deployed in rebel “hot spots” since last week to counter any NPA offensives.

In Cebu City, Superintendent Emelie Santos, deputy director for operations of Cebu City Police Office, said at least 2,000 CCPO members are now gearing up for any rebel offensive. Reserve personnel are also on standby.

In the region there was a surge in communist atrocities this year. The latest NPA attack was the killing of the deputy police station chief of Guihulngan City in Negros Oriental. Senior Inspector Porferio Gabuya Jr. was having coffee along the national highway when he was shot dead by unidentified riding-in-tandem assailants.

In Central Visayas, although the communist movement has now been limited to Negros Oriental, the rebels still hold a significant presence despite the government’s decades of an all-out campaign.

The hinterlands of Cebu and Bohol were once hotbeds of the communist movement where the NPA used to maintain strong bases. However, following years of unrelenting campaign by the armed forces, the two provinces were eventually freed from the rebels’ presence.

However, as tension continues to grip the neighboring Negros provinces and the Samar and Leyte areas, Cebu and Bohol are again being threatened by the rebels. And since Cebu and Bohol are just a boat ride away from those areas, communist infiltration is a high probability.

We can’t deny the fact that once the rebels start to build their presence in Cebu their influence will then spread like wildfire, just like in the previous decades, during their heydays, when the communists had a grand time infiltrating even the urban areas.

Many say that for five decades, the communists have been waging a failed rebellion. But that does not mean they have ceased to be an enemy to be reckoned with. That is why the government should always be on alert as the NPA is still more than capable of launching guerilla warfare.