THE Philippine Army is now controlling the pace and intensity of the operational situation in Negros Island, Major General Eric Vinoya, commander of the Army’s 3rd Infantry Division revealed.
“With the Negrenses’ vigilance in cooperating and giving us accurate information about the whereabouts and activities of the CPP-NPA Terrorists (CNTs) in Negros, we are now dictating the operational tempo favorable to the government security forces in the island,” Vinoya said.
He cited the latest combat operation of the 62nd Infantry (Unifier) Battalion in Brgy Binobohan, Guihulngan City, Negros Oriental on February 28, 2020 that resulted to the death of two members of the CNT Special Partisan Unit (Sparu) as evidence.
“Aside from creating a favorable battleground for the government forces, the present operational tempo in Negros also brought positive results to the Negrenses specifically those victims of communist-terrorists’ ruthlessness. Justice has been served for all innocent civilians after the neutralization of these SPARU members. With their neutralization, we are also expecting the dwindling of the communist-terrorist group’s criminal activities in the area. And, with the Negrenses on our side, we are optimistic that we can totally eradicate these terrorists in due time,” Vinoya said.
Earlier, 62IB said the killed Sparu members were responsible of the killing of innocent civilians in Guihulngan and Canlaon City all of Negros Oriental.
They were also part of the group in the area that were continuously threatening the people who refused to cooperate with them.
With the death of the Sparu members, Vinoya renewed his persistent call to the remaining communist-terrorists in the island to surrender for them to avoid the same fate.
“We have troops everywhere. We have the support of the people. Your armed struggle is now hopeless and irrelevant, but you can still pick the best option; and that is to surrender,” Vinoya said.
Moreover, the 3ID commander reiterated his call to the Negrenses to continue cooperating and supporting their army in its fight against the communist-terrorists.
“Your constant support is all we need to maintain the favorable operational tempo we have right now. We are grateful that you never failed to partake in all of our peace efforts particularly in wiping out these terrorists from your communities. Let us continue working together to put an end to the decades-long communist armed conflict, and together we can move forward towards the achievement of genuine peace and development in this part of the country,” 3ID Commander further said. (TDE)