As the Communist Party of the Philippines-New People’s Army’s (CPP-NPA) strength continues to dwindle, its legal fronts are now sending reinforcements into the countryside, a key Army official said yesterday.

Major General Marion Sison, 3rd Infantry Division commander, disclosed this in his message to troops during the turnover of command ceremony of the Army’s 47th Infantry Battalion (47IB) in Barangay Old Namangka in Negros Oriental’s Mabinay town.

Sison noted a decline in numbers, with only about 20 active NPA members monitored in central and northern Negros.

After the recent encounters in Negros Occidental’s Himamaylan City, the military noted the arrival of legal front members from the national level to Negros Island.

He did not elaborate but stressed that the military would always be on its feet.

“We have to sustain our gains and continue our pressure against the NPA,” Sison said in mixed English and Filipino.

Sison told the troops to continue sustaining the Army’s mission in totally dismantling the South Western front, referring to the NPA’s guerilla front in the 47IB’s area of coverage in central Negros.

“We have a very tall order for this year to dismantle all the existing guerilla fronts here in Negros,” he added, as he reassured the new battalion commander, Lt. Colonel Magno Mapalad, of his full support.

Mapalad replaced Lt. Colonel Allyson Depayso, who served as 47IB commanding officer for more than two years, with notable accomplishments during the battalion’s stint in Bohol.

The division commander also reiterated the importance of the stakeholders’ role in a whole-of-nation approach to “decimate the CPP-NPA-NDF.” (PNA)