MILITARIZATION IN THE PHILIPPINES:Troops sent to C. Luzon urban areas



By Tonette Orejas

Inquirer



Editor's Note: Published on Page A17 of the June 14, 2006 issue of the Philippine Daily Inquirer

CAMP OLIVAS, PAMPANGA—Army Maj. Gen. Jovito Palparan Jr. has repositioned his troops in key cities and towns in Pampanga and Bulacan, a counterinsurgency move never before done in Central Luzon in post-martial law years.

Palparan, commander of the 7th Infantry Division, on Tuesday confirmed to the Inquirer the shifting of about 500 of his forces in the City of San Fernando, Angeles City and Mabalacat town in Pampanga and in Malolos City, Bulacan, Obando, Hagonoy, Pandi and Sta. Maria towns in Bulacan since last week.

He said he has also set up 17 detachments in Pampanga and 40 others in Bulacan.

“The enemy is everywhere so we have to be everywhere also,” Palparan said when asked about the objective of military operations in the urban centers of those two provinces.

“We have to clear the areas of communists,” he said.

This approach, he said, has been coordinated with local officials and the Philippine National Police.

This also sought to “stop the killings of friendly forces,” he said, referring to barangay officials, policemen and civilians supporting the anticommunist campaign.

Palparan said the number of his urban-based soldiers was still small. Drawn from six battalions all over Central Luzon, they are organized in teams of nine.

“A nine-man team for every 5,000 population is small,” he said.

He said he began the concept when he was commander of the 24th Infantry Battalion in Pampanga and Bataan in 1985.

Palparan is due to retire on Sept. 11, the deadline he has also set for “clearing” about 100 rebel-influenced areas in the region.

Angeles City alone has 10 detachments, Col. Ricardo Visaya, commander of the 69th Infantry Battalion said.

“We have to save the economic nerve center of Pampanga from collapsing. We have to deny the communists (a base of) establishing underground houses to be used in their liquidation operations. We have to stop the killings,” Visaya said.

According to him, urban centers are used as staging areas for the operations of the New People’s Army’s liquidation units known as “sparrows.”

The latest move by Palparan—called the “butcher” for about 500 cases of atrocities—did not go without protest from political activists who called it “a form of martial rule.”

The Bagong Alyansang Makabayan in Pampanga has questioned the deployment of soldiers in urban areas, saying the conditions in the province did not warrant their prese