The commander of the Philippine Army 3rd Infantry Division (3ID), Major General Jon Aying, recently appealed to residents of Panay and Negros islands to not sympathize with the New People’s Army (NPA).
Following the June 18 raid on the Maasin Municipal Police Station, with local police claiming nobody reported a truck in town clearly carrying NPA rebels, the 3ID commander believes town residents are NPA sympathizers.
In light of the recent attack in Calatrava, Negros Occidental, which left a planter and his driver dead, he also reminded businesses not to pay “revolutionary taxes.”
Aying believes the NPA wants to project an image of strength amid the chaos in their leadership as the National Democratic Front (NDF) is in the middle of peace talks with the administration of President Rodrigo Duterte./WDJ