LAOAG CITY — Residents of Ilocos Norte continue to enjoy generally peaceful communities with no monitored atrocity by communist rebels in the province so far.
Lt. Col. Eugenio Julio Osias, commanding officer of the Philippine Army’s 81st Infantry Battalion, reported this on Friday during the joint Peace and Order Council and Provincial Anti-Drug Abuse Council Meeting held at the Sangguniang Panlalawigan Session Hall, this city.
Though there had been threats in Ilocos Norte’s neighboring provinces such as in Ilocos Sur and Abra, Osias said there had been no armed recruitment in the province.
Osias warned that with President Rodrigo Duterte’s earlier declaration of war against the New People’s Army (NPA), any one who assists its members in any way shall be charged for cuddling terrorists.
Nonetheless, Vice Governor Eugenio Angelo Marcos Barba, who presided the meeting, urged concerned local authorities and residents here not to be complacent and to report any suspicious activity happening in their respective area of jurisdiction.
Earlier this year, the Philippine Army reported that at least 26 rebels with NPA-issued firearms surrendered to the local authorities in Region 1. (Leilanie Adriano/PNA)
