Bulacan folk tapped in anti-Red campaign

MALOLOS CITY — The government’s all-out war against communist insurgency has reached a new level in Bulacan with the setting up of the first Integrated Territorial Defense System (ITDS) in San Ildefonso town.

Col. Noel Clement, commanding officer of the Army’s 56th Infantry Battalion, told The STAR that the ITDS will enlist the entire community to sustain the government’s counter-insurgency campaign.

"Every member of the community has a role to play in the campaign, but it does not necessarily mean bearing arms and joining the armed conflict between government troopers and communist rebels," he said.

According to Clement, the ITDS is part of government efforts to make local communities better capable to fight not only insurgency, but also criminality.

The defense system will also beef up the communities’ disaster response. 

San Ildefonso Mayor Edgardo Galvez said his town’s ITDS is the first in Central Luzon.

"Our town has been cleared of communist rebels," he said, noting that his constituents freely cooperated with the military when the ITDS concept was explained to them in a series of seminars.

He said each household in all of the town’s barangays has a representative in the ITDS.

"Community involvement is our ultimate goal in our all-out war against insurgency," Clement said.

He said an ITDS can only be put up in a town whose villages have a barangay defense system.

The military’s anti-insurgency efforts in Bulacan have seen a dramatic reduction in "revolutionary taxes" which the New People’s Army (NPA) has been collecting from fishpond owners, mining operators and other businessmen.

The military said the NPA used to collect at least P120 million in "revolutionary taxes" in Bulacan every year.