Batuan mayor Antonino “Dodo” Jumawid reveals that the presence of the New People’s Army (NPA) remains in the province but the armed group’s influence has diminished, thus making the province insurgency-free.
This was the revelation made by Jumawid in a radio interview aired over dyTR’s Open Forum on Wednesday, Dec. 16, 2020.
The mayor said that members of the armed group never really left the province. Some of the members went to other provinces only to return here.
He added that as long as the armed rebels are unable to establish a political-military government in a controlled territory, the province is considered to be insurgency-free per the outlook of military authorities.
Ten (10) years ago, the provincial government and the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) declared Bohol to be an insurgency-free province.
Areas in the town, particularly barangay Rizal, are known to be lairs of armed men purported to be members of the communist NPA rebels.
An encounter between government forces and communist rebels happened in May 2020.
No one was reported injured in said encounter, according to reports.
Moreover, allegedly a body of a rebel was found by the authorities buried in a shallow grave in barangay Rizal on July 15, 2020.