Nolcom: 24 Central Luzon villages contolled by rebels

CAMP GEN. AQUINO, Tarlac — About 24 barangays in Central Luzon are now under the governance of the mainstream communist movement through its so-called people’s revolutionary government, a top military official here said.

According to Brigadier General Nagamora Lomodag, deputy commander of the Armed Forces Northern Luzon Command (NOLCOM) based in this military camp, they consider these rebel-controlled villages as influenced by the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP), together with its respective armed and political wings, the New People’s Army (NPA) and the National Democratic Front (NDF). Lomodag, however, refused to identify the particular villages already being governed by the CPP-NPA-NDF in the region, even as he disclosed that Maoist guerillas have increased by seven percent in terms of fighting force and armaments in Central and Northern Luzon compared to the rebels’ strength last year.

The military official said that communist-influenced barangays have political structures totally controlled by Maoist guerillas, and that day to day governance in such villages are being dispensed by full-time members of the CPP.

Under the Philippine communist doctrine, all oppressed social sectors such as peasants, farmworkers and the middle classes should have their respective representatives in a revolutionary government, or what the rebels refer to as a democratic coalition government, which is best represented by the formation of the NDF and its allied underground groups.

Elements of the CPP serve as the backbone of rebel government units by providing these with revolutionary guidance in accordance with their adherence to Marxist, Leninist and Maoist doctrines. NPA fighters, meanwhile, serve as the armed forces of communist-controlled areas. Aside from maintaining at least one or two guerilla squads in rebel-infested barangays, the NPA also established people’s militias in these areas, said Lomodag.

A guerilla squad is usually composed of at least five to seven full-time fighters, while rebel militias are made up of civilian volunteers and often provided by the insurgents with short firearms. Whenever the guerillas consolidate their forces in these villages, Lomodag said the NPA is capable of forming platoon-size rebel formations.

Because of this, Lomodag said that villages adjacent to those controlled by the rebels have already been classified by the NOLCOM as threatened due to the NPA’s deployment of its Sandatahang Yunit pampropaganda (SYPs), or armed propaganda units.