End of Communist terrorism in Eastern Mindanao nears as EastMinCom cracks 18 NPA units in 2022
Lt. Gen. Greg Almerol, commander of the Eastern Mindanao Command, is anticipating the end is near for the Communist Terrorist Group (CTG) in his joint operational area as EastMinCom end 2022 with five sub-regional committees (SRC), nine guerilla fronts (GF) , and four vertical NPA units dismantled.
Of the 32 guerilla fronts confronted by EastMinCom since the onset of Campaign Plan "Kalinaw Sidlakang Mindanao" in 2017, 28 or 88 percent of the total have crumbled, while the four remaining guerilla fronts are at their weakest.
Among the dismantled was the GF19, SRC Southland, North Eastern Mindanao Regional Committee (NEMRC), which Almerol describes as one of the most notorious CTG units in the Caraga Region that recruited indigenous peoples (IP) and minors to join the armed struggle.
"The GF19 was involved in operating former CTG-linked schools in Agusan del Sur and Surigao del Sur, where the Indigenous Peoples' (IPs) children were brainwashed and recruited in the terrorist movement. Its dismantling is an open door for the future declaration of strategic victory in the Caraga Region, where significant CTG formations remain," the EastMinCom Commander said.
EastMinCom also neutralized 533 CTG regulars, with 71 killed, 48 captured, and 416 surrendered from January until December 2022, including 198 underground mass organizations (UGMOs) personalities and other elements who withdrew their support to the CTG.
Among the high-value individuals neutralized in the said period include, Menandro Villanueva, the secretary of Southern Mindanao Regional Committee (SMRC)/Komisyon Mindanao (KOMMID) and 3rd vice chairman of the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP); Pedro Codaste, the 2nd top-ranking New People's Army (NPA) Commander in Mindanao; and 55 other CTG leaders.
The communist terrorists' firepower further declined as troops recovered 631 firearms, and 121 anti-personnel mines (APM) through combat operations and the surrender of former rebels. Troops also discovered a total of 91 enemy hideouts within the same time frame.
On top of these, the Davao Region was declared by President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. as "insurgency-free" on October 27, 2022, as a result of the successive defeats of the remaining CTG units in the five Davao provinces and one highly urbanized city. PIO, EastMinCom
