The commander of the 3rd Infantry Division of the Philippine Army on Wednesday announced the arrival of the 2nd Negros Island Geographical Battalion has priority tasks to include fighting the insurgency, sealing off the Province from the terror threat, and engaging in the illegal drugs war.
Maj. Gen. Jon Aying, 3rd ID chief, announced this during the activation of the 2nd Negros Island Geographical Battalion at ceremonies Wednesday afternoon at the Ninoy Aquino Freedom Park in Dumaguete.
A day ahead of Wednesday’s ceremonies, the 1st Negros Island Geographical Battalion was also activated in Negros Occidental.
According to Maj. General Aying, the deployment of the battalion in Negros Oriental will complement ongoing efforts by existing government security forces here to keep the peace.
The four priorities of both territorial battalions are to ensure the security resiliency of Negros Island and the whole of the Visayas under the control and supervision of the 3rd Infantry Division.
The four “serious enemies” of security that Maj. General Aying highlighted are the insurgency threat posed by the Communist Party of the Philippines/New People’s Army, the threat of extremist terror groups like the Abu Sayyaf, the proliferation of illegal drugs and vulnerable targets of these three social problems.
“It is very glaring that we have been attacked by the Abu Sayyaf Group in Bohol and it is a must that we must be able to be resilient or have that capacity to insulate us from Mindanao-based violent terrorism and extremism,” he said.
Aside from the anti-terror threat, the other tasks of the battalion in Negros Oriental would be to help fight the insurgency as posed by the Communist New People’s Army, to help fight criminality, especially the President’s war on drugs,
Headed by Maj. Eugie Villan, the 2nd Negros Island Geographical Battalion will be temporarily based at Camp Leon Kilat in Tanjay City where the 79th Infantry Battalion is also based.
Maj. General Aying lauded Negros Oriental Gov. Roel Degamo for his consistent stand against all kinds of security threats and continued support to efforts of government security forces to keep the peace.
As a sign of gratitude for this, Maj. General Aying said it was but fitting to give Governor Degamo full military honors prior to the opening program of the activation of the 2nd Negros Island Geographical Battalion. (Judy Flores-Partlow)
