SORSOGON CITY – Somewhere in the province of Sorsogon, the influence of the communist New People’s Army (NPA) continues to overshadow the renewed counterinsurgency move of the Arroyo administration even with the infusion of P1 billion and a new military tack to decisively weaken the 37-year communist insurgency in the country.

        Ordinary folks and businessmen in the so-called guerilla zones in several towns of Sorsogon are continuously maintaining contact and communications with leading cadres of the NPA, to seek protection of their local businesses or ask immediate redress of their problems.

        Leon (not his real name), an overseas contract worker who has decided to settle for good in his hometown, said he has to deal with the NPA in a non-antagonistic way to survive.

        He said he operates several hectares of coconut and rice farms and fishpond and that giving in to the request of provisions from the NPA unit operating in the area is a small sacrifice compared to the long-term interest he has on the agribusiness.

        But Leon revealed that there were many times that he resented the NPA’s revolutionary tax collection which he found to be excessive but he said he has to control his nerves because he cannot confront them alone.

        He said he has to weigh always his option of directly running into conflict with the interest of the communist rebels because he lives in the area.

        Leon said the option of summoning the help of the government soldiers is more dangerous and impractical because he will be directly involved in the military operation which the rebels would always find out.

        He said he has to deal with the military as with the NPA in a way that no information from either side that would result to loss of life will be shared.

        “I have contacts in military and NPA and I always pick up security information from both of them. To be safe, I have to keep it to myself and avoid being an unwilling participant in their conflict,” Leon said.

        He claimed that the conflict has become a bit bloody with the assassinations of key civilian informants working in the side of military and NPA rebels.

        Leon said that in their town two key informants of the NPA rebels and one informer of the military have been shot dead recently.

        The former OFW claimed that the key informants of the NPA rebels in several villages in their town have moved out for fear they would be killed if they remained there.

        “I think there is an immediate effect on the operation of the NPA rebels in the area with the key informants dead or gone. They (NPA rebels) become blind and deaf about the movement of the military,” Leon said.

        Ray, a landowner operating some 30 hectares of rice and coconut farms, believes that his cooperation with the NPA rebels helps resolve his problems with the tenants in his farm.

        He said that he regularly gives the NPA rebels provisions and with the cooperation he extended to them he could immediately ask them to help him resolve conflicts.

        Ray said that the NPA commander has allowed him file agrarian case against his tenants to teach them lessons.

        He said the district commander has even acted immediately on the complaint he filed against village level NPA commander who had been protecting illegal logging activities.

        “Lolo (the name they call the district NPA commander) has reprimanded the village level NPA commander and confiscated three chainsaws his relatives use to cut down trees within his jurisdiction,” Ray revealed.

        Ray believed that it will not be easy for the military to wipe out the NPA rebels in Sorsogon because he said poverty persists.

        In the renewed anti-insurgency campaign under the P1-billion budget, Sorsogon province is one of the targets where the NPA rebels are expected to be decimated within the two-year period beginning this year.