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SAN JOSE CITY: The military have withdrawn some 300
soldiers from the province of Aurora, after months of supposedly
fighting insurgency in the area.
Reports from Fort Ramon Magsaysay
indicated that the original 350 Army men stationed in Aurora has now
been reduced to only 50 from the battalion’s Delta Company that is
intended to bolster security in this mountain province overlooking
the Pacific Ocean.
Lt. Col. Joselito Kakilala,
commanding officer of the 48th Infantry (Guardians) Battalion,
pointed out that the initial intention of the military was to boost
the tourism programs of Gov. Belaflor Angara-Castillo. He said it
was never to go after militant organizations as they have been
falsely accused.
Kakilala said the withdrawal of
armed military men should calm down ruffled feelings of the local
folk as well as visiting foreign and domestic tourists.
Coming at the heels of a number
of accusations of human rights violations in the wake of
disappearances political activists, Kakilala said this troop
withdrawal is not in reaction to such complaints.
He denied his troops’
participation in the abduction of local radio anchorman Joey
Estriber who disappeared on March 3 last year and who had not been
heard from since then. In fact, he said, he and his men even helped
in locating Estriber’s whereabouts through the conduct of
checkpoints all over the province.
He expressed confidence that the
remaining military troops in Aurora are capable of handling the
counterinsurgency problem in the area, with the battalion’s recent
successes in dismantling local guerrilla fronts in the nearby
provinces of Nueva Ecija, Nueva Vizcaya and Isabela.
 --Armand
M. Galang
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