Wednesday, March 26, 2008 NPA intensifying grassroots drive By Carlo P. Mallo
THE Police Regional Office 11 is again on its toes as reports abound that the New People's Army is amassing in the outskirts of Southern Mindanao and its political officers are actively campaigning in the countryside to regain the support of the 'masa' (grassroots).
In an interview Monday with Chief Superintendent Andres Caro II, police regional director, he said they have received reports that the communist rebel group is concentrating its forces in Southern Mindanao.
"It is a situation actually peculiar only to Southern Mindanao," Caro said. "It is not the same in other regions in the country, only here."
The police regional director said NPA cadres coming from as far as Luzon are already in the region.
"They are operating in the area," Caro said.
Even as top security officials of the country assert that the rebel group is already in its twilight days, the rebel group continues to make its presence felt in Southern Mindanao.
The latest atrocity committed by the rebel group was the murder of a village chief of a far-flung hinterland village in Davao City.
Stronghold
Caro revealed that one of the strongholds of the rebel group is still the province of Compostela Valley where six of the 14 committee fronts of the rebel group are concentrated.
"There were sightings of 80 to 100 rebels in Nabunturan," Caro said.
However, Caro said that despite the active campaign of the political organizers of the rebel group in the far-flung communities in the region, he expressed confidence that the communities are no longer as susceptible as they were in the previous decades.
"These communities have already suffered the brunt of the communist rebels, they now know and cannot fall prey to the rebels again," Caro said.
"They are even recruiting the rebel returnees who have embraced the rule of law and are now with the government," Caro said.
The police regional director said though that they have not monitored any movement of the rebel forces in the urban areas, particularly in Davao City.
Bread and butter
Caro said the primary reason that the rebels are back in the region is due to the abundance of natural resources here.
"They prey on the plantations, mining firms, and other businesses in the region," Caro said. "This is where their bread and butter is."
In Southern Mindanao alone, the rebel group has two regional committees -- the Southern Mindanao Regional Committee and the Far South Regional Committee -- and 14 front committees scattered in the four provinces of the region and in the hinterland areas of Davao City.
