COTABATO CITY: The Army yesterday vowed to swiftly address the renewed incursions by the New People’s Army (NPA) in North Cotabato’s restive Makilala town in retaliation of its heavy losses in recent encounters with government forces.
Brigadier General Ademar Tomaro, commander of the Army’s 602nd Brigade in Carmen, North Cotabato, said that the NPA’s two atrocities this week in Makilala — a landmine attack, and the disarming of Moro residents by rebels disguised as soldiers enforcing the election gun ban — were part of the group’s continuing retaliations after having been badly defeated in a series of encounters with soldiers in the past eight months.
Tomaro said their community patrols in the areas vulnerable to NPA attacks will continue on a daily basis, as part of the security measures meant to prevent them from regaining control of the villages they once subjected to excessive taxation activities.
“Good enough, civilian communities and local leaders are helping monitor their activities and their tactical manoeuvres,” Tomaro said.
Tomaro said NPAs disguised as Army soldiers enforcing the election gun ban divested Moro villagers of their firearms in a daring raid in a remote district in Makilala last Monday.
Sixty NPA rebels arrived at Barangay Lacobe and pretended as members of the government’s security force implementing the gun ban. Some of the Moro farmers in Barangay Lacobe are members of the Moro National Liberation Front, which signed a peace pact with the national government on September 2, 1996, while some villagers serve as volunteers in a local militia helping the police and military maintain law and order in the area. After collecting the firearms of the villagers, the rebels left.
The Philippine Star
