NPA bastion in Bukidnon now 'insurgency-free'

COTABATO CITY — A large multi-sector peace-advocacy group has declared Don Carlos, a town in Bukidnon once heavily influenced by the New People’s Army (NPA), as free from insurgency.

Major Gen. Allan Hambala, commander of the Army’s 10th Infantry Division, announced on Saturday that local executives, indigenous tribe leaders, officials from Police Regional Office-10, and Brig. Gen. Marion Angcao, commander of the 1003rd Infantry Brigade, signed a declaration on Tuesday, February 25, marking the municipality as "insurgency-free."

The symbolic event, jointly organized by Angcao, local government officials in Don Carlos and police officials in Bukidnon, was held at the JMZ Astrodome in Don Carlos, an upland town in Bukidnon.

Members of the Don Carlos municipal council also declared the municipality as having "stable internal peace and security" through a resolution passed by the Sangguniang Bayan.

“We are grateful to all sectors, the leaders of ethnic communities in Don Carlos, all municipal and provincial officials, the police and our soldiers in the province for having made the municipality insurgency-free,” Hambala said.

Police officials, local executives, and various sectors supporting the 1003rd Infantry Brigade’s counter-insurgency programs also declared Bukidnon's neighboring towns of San Fernando, Kadingilan, Damulog, Dangcagan, and Kibawe as free from NPA presence in separate ceremonies held in recent months.

More than 400 NPAs and supporters who had forcibly collected revolutionary taxes and food from villagers and imposed a harsh justice system in the now insurgency-free towns of Bukidnon have surrendered in batches to the 10th Infantry Division over the past five years.

They had been reintroduced to the local communities by the 10th ID and various government agencies in Region 10 and local executives and are now thriving peacefully as farmers, construction workers, tricycle drivers and entrepreneurs in the barangays where they once had camps, now recognized as “peace zones” both by the police and military.