Daily Tribune‘Your role is crucial in gaining an advantage to end the insurgency and safeguarding the safety and security of the Eastern Visayas. We trust in your abilities to carry out your duties with the utmost professionalism and expertise’
TROOPS from the Second Howitzer Platoon, Bravo Company, 3rd Field Artillery Battery (3FAB), Armor Artillery Regiment (AAR) of the Philippine Army beef up forces to eradicate insurgency in Eastern Visayas.
Photograph courtesy of 8ID
CATBALOGAN CITY — The campaign to end insurgency in Eastern Visayas before the end of the year gets a boost with the deployment of additional forces.
The Armed Forces of the Philippines’ Joint Task Force Storm and the 8th Infantry Division (8ID) on Friday, 31 May, welcomed the arrival of the Second Howitzer Platoon, Bravo Company, 3rd Field Artillery Battery (3FAB), Armor Artillery Regiment (AAR) of the Philippine Army in the region.
Colonel Cesar Molina, 8ID Chief of Staff, says the additional personnel will serve as support troops in the government campaign to totally eradicate the communist insurgency in the region.
Earlier, 8ID Commander Maj. Gen. Camilo Ligayo said the military targets to wipe out the local communist insurgency in Eastern Visayas before the end of the year.
Ligayo said Eastern Visayas no longer has a guerilla front with the dismantling of the last three guerilla fronts last year. However, the military says there are still five “vertical formations” of the communist group that are present in Samar Island.
Molina said he is confident that the additional forces will greatly contribute in sustaining the gains of the government troops against the local communists.
“Your role is crucial in gaining an advantage to end the insurgency and safeguarding the safety and security of the Eastern Visayas. We trust in your abilities to carry out your duties with the utmost professionalism and expertise,” Molina told the troops in welcoming them.
He said the platoon will be placed under the operational control of the 803rd Infantry Brigade, and will focus their effort in confronting the Regional Guerilla Unit, Sentro De Gravidad of the Eastern Visayas Regional Party Committee in the province of Northern Samar.
He said the deployment of the 2nd Howitzer Platoon, Bravo Company of 3FAB will bolster the existing firepower capabilities towards the total eradication of the Eastern Visayas Regional Party Committee, the Communist Party of the Philippines- New People’s Army’s umbrella organization in the region.
