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| ACLOBAN CITY — A top military official in Leyte has vowed to clear the province of communist rebels by 2008. Col. Raoul Reyes, commander of the 802nd Brigade, whose jurisdiction covered Leyte, Southern Leyte and Biliran, said the number of communist insurgents in Leyte has drastically dwindled since 2006. Only about 40 New People's Army (NPA) fighters are now operating in the province, according to Reyes. The brigade commander told reporters here on Saturday that the insurgents were in their "death throes" and that "the province could be free of communist rebels by 2008." Reyes said remnants of the NPA were scattered in the towns of Albuera and Kananga towns in the province's fourth district, Jaro town in the second district, in Baybay, Inopacan and Hilongos in the fifth district. He said NPA guerrillas were demoralized after many of their camps were overran, several of their firearms seized, and most of their leaders in the NPA's North Leyte Front (NLF) were captured during intensified counter-insurgency operations by the military. Lt. Col. Lope Dagoy, commanding officer of the 19th Infantry Battalion, which is under the 802nd Brigade, disclosed that when he assumed his post a couple of years ago, there were 158 armed insurgents in his area of jurisdiction, aside from thousands of NPA sympathizers. "Today, according to our latest accounting, there remains only less than 30 of these armed rebels," he told the Philippine Daily Inquirer (parent company of INQUIRER.net), referring to his coverage area. "This is a manifestation that our [counterinsurgency] operations against them (NPA) is very effective," he added. |