A military commander said that members of the New People’s Army (NPA) who are operating under the area of responsibility of the 3rd Infantry Battalion are already starting to leave the communities.
However, Lt. Col. Raymund Dante Lachica, the outgoing commander of the 3rd IB, said that they are not letting their guard down despite the intelligence reports of dwindling rebel population.
in 3rd IB almost there is none, we have cast them away in other areas but still we are monitoring their presence actually (some of them) small group.
“We don’t discount the possibility that there are still some left,” Lachica said on Wednesday’s AFP-PNP press conference held at Royal Mandaya hotel.
“Actually we have received feelers that they want to surrender already so we are waiting on that within this week.”
The 3rd IB covers the whole third congressional district of the city, such as Marilog, Calinan, Baguio, Tugbok, and Toril.
“We already drove them out during the last encounter,” he said.
Based on the record of the 3rd IB, Lachica said from May 2016 up to July, they already facilitated the surrender of more than 100 communist guerrillas. During that span, they also lost the lives of four soldiers in clashes.
This was highlighted by the 49 mass surrenders of NPA rebels during the visit of President Rodrigo Duterte earlier this year.
The surrenders were made possible through the help of the Supreme Tribal Council for Peace and Development.
On civil-military operations, he said they have been conducting quarterly the Serbisyo Caravan in far- flung barangays in the third district, led by the city government and supported by other government agencies and the private sectors.
