47th IB Katapatan celebrates 29th founding anniversary
KALIBO, Aklan — The 47th Infantry (Katapatan) Battalion celebrated its 29th founding anniversary on March 16.
Major General Vicente Porto said the 47th IB is the 3rd Infantry Division’s Best Battalion for 2009 for capturing eight communist rebels of the Central Front Committee-Kilusang Rehiyon Panay without firing a single shot in Calinog, Iloilo last year.
“The occasion marks another year of excellence, keep up the good work and may we continue to fully serve our countrymen, and let our genuine service inspire them to help others,” he said.
Porto said the intelligence section must maximize its effort in seeking the communist terrorists by attaining intelligence fusion with the Army’s intelligence counterparts.
“Despite being the lone battalion of 301st Brigade, you continue to perform well in dismantling the Central Front of KR-Panay. That is indeed a superhuman feat,” he added.
The 47th IB was activated on March 16, 1981 and was adjudged as the “Best Infantry Battalion” among the ten Infantry Battalions of the 3rd Infantry Division in 1991.
It was Col. Warlito Sayam who founded the Katapatan Scholarship Foundation, Inc. in 1991 to extend educational assistance to the orphans of civilians and volunteers who were killed by the New People’s Army in Aklan and Antique.
The unit also conducts combat operations coupled with Civil Military Operations and Intelligence Operations to neutralize threats group in the whole area of operation. It figured in the rescue and relief operations in 2008 during the devastation of Typhoon Frank in the provinces of Iloilo, Capiz, Antique and Aklan.
The first commanding officer of 47th IB was Lt. Col. Allen Nacar, who was first field tested in Central Mindanao on September 1981. After seven years of exemplary performance in Mindanao–Zamboanga del Sur, Basilan, Sultan Kudarat, Cotabato, Maguindanao–from July 1996, the battalion returned to Visayas on August 2003 for retraining and further established battalion headquarters at Camp Major Jesus Jizmundo, Libas, Banga, Aklan relieving the elements of 12th Infantry Battalion on January 2004.
Last January 2005, the battalion headquarters transferred to Camp Gen. Ceferino S. Carreon in Calinog, Iloilo to relieve in-place elements of Task Force Panay and on February 2006, the unit transferred in Jamindan, Capiz to undergo battalion retraining.
Among the Infantry Battalions last year, 79th IB of Negros Occidental got the highest rating in administration with 27.57 points followed by 47th IB with 26.28 points. TRIAD and SOT operations, the 47th IB had 18.05 points followed by 79th IB with 15.70 points.
With an overall point of 44.33, 47th IB outranked all other five infantry battalions in the 301st Brigade. (Boy Ryan Zabal)
