Military warns: ‘Reds to exploit land conflicts’

TAGBILARAN CITY, Bohol, March 10 (PNA)-In usual trend, communist terrorists tend to “exploit issues on land conflicts to motivate and incite the masses to protest and participate whatever legal action they want to conduct”.


Col. John Bonafos, commander of the 802nd Infantry Brigade, issued the warning during the recent Provincial Peace and Order Council (PPOC) meeting.


Bonafos reported that the military monitored no change in the disposition of the white area committees of the supposed rebels in the three districts of Bohol.


There had also been “no more movements of the armed group being monitored” by the 802nd IB since January this year, Bonafos added.


“The enemy has observed that most of the local folks in the countryside are still not receptive to the idea of armed group’s return,” he said.


On this, the leaders of the white area committees of the communists and other sectoral leaders have to exert more effort and it might require them more time “to regain the sympathy of the masses in cooperation with legal groups”, according to Bonafos.


The 2nd Special Forces Battalion had conducted 37 security patrols in strategic areas of the province from February 21 to March 7.


For the reserve force development, ROTC cadets from the University of Bohol, Holy Name University, Bohol Institute of Technology-International College, and Bohol Island State University-Bilar campus passed the Regional Annual Administrative Performance Evaluation conducted by ARESCOM on February 21-24.


To sustain the insurgent-free status of Bohol, the military and the provincial government deploy Prosperity Teams (Pro-Teams) to make sure that the basic services reach the farthest sub-village or purok in the province.


In fact, the ProTeams scheduled benchmarking activities in 40 selected model puroks.


Also lined up among the future plans is the trainors’ training on integrated territorial security system or barangay security system at municipal and barangay levels.


Starting with 15 barangays from December 11 last year to February this year, the ProTeams target to cover 40 barangays by the first quarter.


A Pro-Team had been deployed to each of the following barangays in 12 towns: Sto Nino in Talibon; Calanggaman and Pampang in Ubay; Nueva Estrella and Nueva Esperanza in Bien Unido; Concepcion in Danao; Paraiso in Mabini; Katipunan in Alicia; Panadtaran in Candijay; Montesuerte and Villa Arcayo in Carmen; Matabao in Tubigon; Doljo in Panglao; Totolan in Dauis; and Kagawasan in Dagohoy.


The first batch of ProTeams with members of Community Organizers for Countryside Development Purok Power Movement (CO-CD:PPM), Governor Edgar Chatto as ExeCom chair and the technical working group handed over some equipment from the provincial government, identified during the survey, during the induction of purok officers on February 21 and 22.


The second batch of Pro-Team had undergone training on February 20-24 here, while additional teams from the 2nd Special Forces Battalion and 7RPSMB had their orientation training on February 27-28 at the base of 802nd Infantry Brigade in Camp Sikatuna, Carmen.


The Engineer Support Battalion, for its part, accomplished 72 percent of the 38.2 kilometers farm-to-market road rehabilitation project in the town of Buenavista. The project, benefiting 12 barangays, costs P670,000 funded by the local government unit of Buenavista.


Governor Chatto explained that in the prioritization of areas to be served by Pro-Teams, reports of poverty and security are considered.


A Pro-Team is composed of peace and development teams (PDT) comprising military personnel, and the Community Organizing for Countryside Development (CO-CD).


The main effort is the task of the CO-CD undertaken by its 30 employees, while the Special Forces of the military field 60 personnel to undertake support effort, and 15 police non-commissioned officers (PNCOs) take charge of another layer of the support effort.
Each team is composed of two members from the CO-CD, four from the Special Forces, and one police officer.


------------------------------------------------------------
RSV/Angeline Valencia/utb | Philippine News Agency | March 11,2012 | Article Link