WITH the schools reportedly the recruitment hotbed of fresh bloodied insurgents coupled with the recent sightings of home-coming rebels, military and civilian authorities have doubled up on the efforts to insulate the academic institutions.
Last Thursday, March 18, elements of the 802nd Infantry Brigade of the Philippine Army rounded two Loon secondary schools, to interact with students in an anti-insurgency awareness campaign to keep them from the dangers of communism.
The army activities are done in cooperation with the Department of Education’s Bohol Division, Boholano army civil military operations head, Major Eduardo Malig-on said.
The army team, along with civilian resource speaker Narciso Tabaniag Jr. breezed through Cantaongon’s Gov. Jacinto Borja National High School and Loon South High School to expose the threat of communism and insurgency.
The campaign is a result of the study saying that rebels have shifted their recruitment of new members from the rural areas to the “white areas.”
White areas are defined as the urban areas where the insurgents shift from the more active way of campaigns to the formation of legal fronts and start in the guise of people’s organizations slowly shifting to radical groups actively involved in street parliaments graduating to hardcore armed rebels.
Another source and recruitment is in the schools and most of those involve minors, admits Tabaniag, who used to be in the service and is now actively involved in the campaign.
Noting this and making sure that this does not happen in Bohol, the army is now putting up the drive in schools to chase away the recruiters.
As this happens, the army is also involved in another program putting up livelihood assistance to residents in areas formerly held or influenced by rebels.
In cooperation with the Department of Trade and Industry, Loon Municipal Government and 33.3 exports, the army trained residents on basket-weaving in a program called Sub contracting Partners of Innovation (SPIN).
SPIN is a priority project of President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo to hold the residents back of a cleared barangay from the grasp of the insurgents, said DTI 7 director Asteria Caberte. (rachiu/PIA)
