Redeployment of govt troops to Mindanao puts other regions at risk - solon

MANILA, Philippines - The re-deployment of security forces to the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) for the elections and for the operations in North Cotabato might have created vacuums in other parts of the country that could be taken advantage of by rebel and terrorist groups, a senator warned Tuesday. Senator Rodolfo Biazon, chairman of the Senate committee on national defense and security, said the Armed Forces of the Philippines and the Philippine National Police should ensure that security measures are still in place in other parts of the country despite the re-deployment of their troops to key areas in Mindanao. “Care must be taken that in this redeployment, no vacuum is created somewhere else that could be taken advantage of by rebel and or terrorist groups,” said Biazon, a former military chief of staff. The senator noted that when the military pulled out its forces in the Visayas to augment troops in Central Mindanao during President Joseph Estrada’s all-out war against secessionist rebels in 2000, the New People’s Army (NPA) took this as an opportunity to launch several attacks in the provinces of Negros, Iloilo, and Leyte. “After the withdrawal of forces from these areas for redeployment to Central Mindanao, these were taken advantage of by the NPA in Negros, Iloilo and other areas to the point that those units withdrawn for redeployment to Mindanao were hastily taken back to their former deployment,” he said. - GMANews.TV