BACOLOD CITY – A Philippine Army official said the New People's Army in Negros Occidental has returned to organizing activities to reclaim the sympathy of its former supporters.

Col. Oscar Lactao, commander of the 303rd Infantry Brigade based in Murcia town, said, however, the NPA has a problem on the lack of issues to convince its mass bases to support the movement again.

Lactao noted the organizing efforts amid a stop in the rebel atrocities in recent months.

Last May 12, two NPA combatants and an Army soldier were killed in a clash in Canlaon City, Negros Oriental. The encounter came after two members of the Citizens Armed Forces Geographical Unit Active Auxiliary were gunned down by NPA Special Partisan Unit members in separate incidents in southern Negros Occidental.

Col. Francisco Patrimonio, commander of the 302nd IB in Negros Oriental, said reports indicate that the NPA conducts training for its future cadres and fighters for Bohol in the hinterlands of San Carlos City, Negros Occidental.

The Army's 3rd Infantry Division had earlier said the NPA is deploying its members from Luzon to Negros in the wake of the decreasing number of quality cadres in the island.

Major Gen. Jose Mabanta Jr., commander of the 3rd ID, said the continuing decrease of NPA cadres particularly from the youth and student sector (YS) is a result of the series of youth leadership summits they have conducted in Western Visayas.

"We know that the YS sector has been a primary target of the NPA as source of quality cadres, knowing there exist in them strong intellectual thinking and keen political sense," he said.

Mabanta added that although the NPA still has other sources of cadres, the Philippine Army is pleased that the YS sector has now become elusive from recruitment into the underground movement.

Last March, the military claimed in a report of a huge drop in NPA forces in Negros Occidental – from an estimated 1,200 in the late 1980s, to about 500 in year 2000. It was further reduced to only 212 in 2010.

The NPA Roselyn Pelle Command, however, had dismissed the Army's claim that the NPA in northern Negros has been downgraded, saying their forces remain intact.*NLG