CLAVERIA, MISAMIS ORIENTAL – As part of the unit’s awareness campaign, the 58th Infantry Dimalulupig, in partnership with the National Intelligence Coordinating Agency (NICA), conducted an information drive to the labor sector of Misamis Oriental through video teleconferencing, June 18, 2021.
This public awareness campaign began in early March of this year, in recognition of the fact that the communist insurgency in the Philippines has lasted far too long due to a lack of adequate solutions. The 58th Infantry “Dimalulupig” Battalion began undertaking online information drives aimed at university and college students, then instructors, and finally the labor sector.
The audience for the information drive was made up of executives from three of MisOr’s major corporations: Philippine Sinter Corporation, Gardenia Bakeries Philippines Inc, and Coca-Cola FEMSA PH. NICA graced the event by giving lectures and testimonies on the government’s interventions in the country’s communist insurgency, particularly the Executive Order No. 70. The information drive’s main purpose was to educate the public and persuade them not to assist or join the CPP-NPA-NDF in any way.
This concept arose because the CPP- NPA-NDF poses a major threat in the labor sector of Misamis Oriental as front organizations are on the verge of infiltrating them again to win support and sustain their resources. One way to combat this is to conduct information drives about these front organizations masquerading as seemingly harmless and for the people organizations that deceitfully exploit the labor sector’s issues and concerns to advance their own selfish agenda; and once successfully exploited, they will use these concerns for political and terroristic activities of the CPP-NPA-NDF. As a result, the gap between the labor and business sectors will be bridged.
The Commanding Officer of 58IB, Lt. Col. Ricky L Canatoy, went on to emphasize the importance of undertaking this information drive and urged the companies to help end the local communist armed conflict. “The armed group we’re confronting in the hinterlands is just there, waiting for supply rations from their supporters in the white area. We discovered that their numbers are dwindling based on recent encounters and accounts of recent surrenderers. That is why we are attempting to sustain our methods, not just in warfare, but also in tracing and halting the outpouring and flow of their resources. They are relying on the white areas to support them and are even attempting to reactivate some front organizations since they are at desperate times in their lives, very hungry and in a very uncomfortable state.”
“We are trying to generate help from other sectors in order to truly put an end to armed conflict in MisOr, since this is in our best interests. The majority of our successful military operations during my tenure as battalion commander have been due to tipped off information from the public. And that is what I’m asking of you: to keep cooperating and supporting us, since information is extremely important in ending this armed conflict. That is why we are also sending this critical information to you, and we hope that this knowledge will be disseminated in your workplace and even in your homes. You can rest assure that your safety will not be jeopardized.” Lt. Col. Canatoy also thanked the NICA and the companies that participated in the information drive for making this possible.
The info drive ended with an open forum in which participants were able to openly share their experiences and ask questions about how to handle similar circumstances in their own workplace. The discussion was also very fruitful, as there were exchange of ideas on how the private sectors could contribute to ending the local communist armed conflict in Misamis Oriental.
