Army asks LGUs to fast track road repair in Igbaras far-flung barangays
Military authorities in Panay Island have asked the chief executives of various local government units and national government agencies concerned to fast track the repair of roads leading to the rebel training camp in Igbaras hinterlands.
This, after the rebel camp situated in an estimated four to five hectares of land in Sitio Tangian, Barangay Passi, Igbaras, Iloilo which military authorities considered the biggest training camp of the Hukbong Bayan rebels in Panay island, finally fell after an assault by Army troops of the 79th Infantry Battalion (IB).
Lt. Col. Nestor Porlucas, commanding officer of the 79th IB, said there's a need to improve the roads in the hinterland barangays as these would help the farmers easily transport their agricultural products to the market.
Improved farm-to-market roads would also help uplift the living standard of poor hinterland residents and spur economic growth in the far-flung barangays, Porlucas said. He explained once development is achieved, rebels could no longer use the issue on poverty as an alibi in the furtherance of their ideology.
Porlucas said the rebel camp's fall was also the result of collaborative effort of far-flung residents who tipped off military authorities on the existence of the rebels' training ground. Poor hinterland folks are already tired of the rebels' imposed revolutionary taxes and other extortion activities in the mountain areas for the past many years, he noted.
Meanwhile, the government forces would continue to launch aggressive military operations in the mountain areas of San Remigio and Sibalom in Antique-Igbaras and Tubungan in Iloilo based on intelligence information on the existence of an enemy camp used as training ground of new recruits from Panay and Negros islands.
The Philippine Army's continuous internal security operation would also deprive rebels of an opportunity to spread their armed wing for terror attacks on vital government installations and harass big companies which refuse to give in to demands of "revolutionary taxes" to the underground movement.
(PNA)