Army pulls out 300 soldiers from Aurora

MA. AURORA, Aurora – The Philippine Army has pulled out 300 of its troops operating in the province recently.

Army Lt. Col. Joselito Kakilala, battalion commander of the 48th Infantry Battalion told The STAR that only 50 Armymen belonging to the battalion’s Delta Company were left in the province.

"We have scaled down our men in Aurora but this is not to dismiss accusations of militarization. This should be good for tourism. Mas gaganda ang turismo kung kokonti ang military at hindi makakailang sa turista. (Tourism will be enhanced if there are few soldiers and it would not distract tourists)," he said.

He added though that he does not want to negate the efforts of the local political leadership to promote the province as a tourist destination.

The provincial government, headed by Gov. Bellaflor Angara-Castillo, has been intensifying a program to lure both local and domestic tourists. Tourism promotion is one of the cornerstones of the governor’s development agenda codenamed HEALTH, which stands for health, education, agriculture, livelihood, tourism and environmental management and human resource development.

Over the past several months, the military in the province has been accused of committing a number of human rights violations and of being behind the disappearances of political activists. Kakilala himself was tagged as responsible for orchestrating the abduction of local radio anchorman Joey Estriber who disappeared in March last year and has not been found.

Kakilala denied the accusations, saying he and his men even helped in locating Estriber’s whereabouts through the conduct of checkpoints shortly before he was abducted.

Kakilala said that if only the Nueva Ecija-Aurora Road would be improved, then more tourists would flock to the province.

He expressed confidence that the remaining military troops in the province could handle the counter-insurgency problem. The battalion has dismantled local guerrilla fronts in the province as well as those in nearby provinces of Nueva Ecija, Nueva Vizcaya and Isabela.

He said his men have already dismantled Kilusang Larangang Gerilya (KLG) South and KLG North in the province apart from KLG Front 1 in Nueva Ecija.

With the dismantling of these fronts, a measly 100 communist guerrillas were left in these areas and they were reportedly absorbed by other fronts.

The 48th IB, which falls under the operational jurisdiction of the Fort Magsaysay Military Reservation in Palayan City, used to have its headquarters in Barangay Wenceslao in this town but it has transferred to San Jose city in northern Nueva Ecija.

The battalion operates in eight municipalities of the province; Dinapigue in Isabela, Alfonso Castañeda in Nueva Vizcaya and the cities of Palayan and San Jose and the towns of Bongabon, Carranglan, Gabaldon, Laur, Pantabangan and Rizal, all in Nueva Ecija.