MATALAM, North Cotabato – Some 200 villagers from the far-flung Barangay Arakan here returned home Monday after fleeing their homes following the sporadic encounters between government forces and the communist New People’s Army (NPA) rebels.
Barangay Arakan chairman Harold Mantawil said the affected families are all residents of Sitio Valdevieso who temporarily took shelter at a covered court in Sitio Kulog since the start of the running gun battle last week.
Local government officials ordered the evacuees’ return after the military assured the safety of the civilians, Mantawil said.
“The villagers’ livelihood was also affected because they were forced to leave their livestock and farms for safety, ” he added.
The Provincial Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Office (PDRRMO) conducted relief operations on Monday, distributing food packs and other essentials for the displaced families.
“Trickles of evacuees slowly came to the Sitio Kulog evacuation site since last week,” Matalam Vice Mayor Cheryl Valdevieso-Catamco said.
Brig. Gen. Roberto Capulong, commander of the Army’s 602nd Infantry Brigade, said the series of clashes erupted after NPA rebels fired on soldiers belonging to the Army’s 90th Infantry Battalion while conducting foot patrol in Barangay Arakan on Oct. 24.
During the pursuit operation, Capulong said government troopers managed to “neutralize” Zaldy Gulmatico Pulido, the secretary-general of the NPA’s Guerrilla Front 53.
Capulong said pursuit operations are continuing against the rebels who had splintered into smaller groups in the peripheries of the two provinces.
The NPA, together with the Communist Party of the Philippines and the National Democratic Front, is listed as a terrorist organization by the United States, European Union, the United Kingdom, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and the Philippines.-PNA
