TAGBILARAN CITY — Despite the encounter between government forces and purported members of the New People’s Army in Bilar, Bohol last Tuesday, a military official maintained that the province remains to be insurgency-free.
Col. Ignacio Madriaga, commanding officer of the 302nd Infantry Brigade, on Thursday said Bohol remains free from insurgents since the conditions and basis for being free from rebels prevail in the province.
He told the Philippine News Agency (PNA) that an inter-agency body determines whether an area is an insurgency-free or not.
The inter-agency body usually takes a long hard look at the situation and studies the conditions to declare an area insurgency-free or not, Madriaga said.
There are certain parameters the agencies involved in the process use in the analysis or assessment of the condition.
One important element taken into consideration by the inter-agency body is the active participation of the local government executives from the province, town and down to the barangay levels in addressing the issues impacting the residents especially in the hinterlands.
Madriaga said declaring an area insurgency-free is not absolute and does not mean there would be zero presence of armed groups or communist rebels.
For this reason, it would be difficult to remove the insurgency-free tag from Bohol based only on one incident, he added.
Last Tuesday, members of the 47th Infantry Battalion engaged in a firefight against suspected NPAs in Sitio Ilaud, Barangay Campagao, Bilar. The armed group was allegedly led by a certain Domingo Compoc.
Two members of the government forces were injured and a civilian was wounded after reportedly getting hit by a stray bullet during the firefight.
Madriaga said Bohol has been a model for other provinces as a successful case study in eradicating the insurgency problem, which some provinces are unable to do.
He said Bohol has been able to achieve the so-called “trinity of peace” or the cooperation of government, security forces, and the community, including the media being the watchdog of society.
Bohol is unique since it has deployed the so-called “Pro Teams” under the Countryside Development Program-Purok Power Movement to certain barangays in the province in an effort to listen and to address the concerns of residents and to make them feel the presence of government’s care for their situation.
In 2010, Bohol and Cebu were declared insurgency-free by the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP).
One of the indicators used at that time by the AFP to declare Bohol as insurgency-free was the insignificant level of armed men sightings.
However, there were sightings of armed men since 2017 in various rural areas in Bohol, as reported by the military to the Provincial Peace and Order Council. (PNA)
