WITH the election fever now in full swing, can the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) be sending out collection letters demanding for permit to campaign (PTC) or permit to win (PTW) fees to candidates again? Sr. Supt. Anthony Obenza, Bohol police provincial director Thursday night told the Provincial Peace and Order Council (PPOC) chaired by Gov. Erico Aumentado that his office has not received any report to the effect so far. But Major Jose Laplap, executive officer of the 2nd Forces Battalion (2SFBn) based in Barangay Riverside, Bilar town however said he has in his possession two extortion letters. Laplap represented Lt. Col. Alfredo Sanchez, battalion commander. Laplap said one letter bore the CPP-National Democratic Front (NDF) logo while the other was “mere notebook paper” demanding that the recipient, a businesswoman from Pilar town, give the sender P25,000.

He dismissed the latter to be a plain extortion letter while the other one, received by a candidate in Ubay town, “could be real.” He confirmed that the logo of the CPP-NDF can be easily downloaded from the internet but the tenor of the letter tended to be authentic. Aumentado, a veteran of 10 elections who survived an ambush near the Capitol staged by the New People's Army (NPA), the outlawed armed component of the CPP on February 13, 2004 – a Friday the 13th – offered to help. “I know the language of the underground,” he said, and asked for a copy of the letter. In his report, Laplap said the battalion that is the “main effort” of the 802nd Infantry Brigade based in Barangay Katipunan in Carmen town assesses the NPA's forces here to have dwindled. It has been scraping the bottom of the barrel so that the NPA would find it very difficult and next to impossible to still stage an armed attack. But he is not ruling out the presence of the NPAs. While Bohol has been declared insurgency-free, it can also be the rest and recreation area of outlaws in nearby Cebu , Negros and Leyte provinces fleeing from the army.

Aumentado, Chief Supt. Lani-o Nerez, police Region 7 director and Major Gen. Arthur Tabaquero, commanding general of the 8th Infantry Division based in Catbalogan City , Samar , had signed a joined resolution declaring Bohol as such on Feb. 11 in Barangay Remedios in Danao town. The barangay is the site of the Kalayaan Resettlement Center where row houses will be built by the Engineer Support Battalion (ESBn) based in Barangay Macaas in Tubigon town under Lt. Col. Ramon Evan Ruiz for comrades in reform or Kauban sa Reporma (KRs) – former rebels who have returned to the fold of the law – and other Remedios residents. During the occasion, the parties also signed a tripartite memorandum of understanding turning over the responsibility of the next phase of internal security operations under the National Internal Security Plan (NISP) from the army to the police after the army had “cleared” Bohol of the insurgents.

Under the plan, after the army clears an area of rebels, the civilian government takes over the consolidation, holding and development phases. But, Laplap said, the CPP-NDF has white area committees in all three districts of Bohol that will nevertheless continue to try enticing civilians, students, professionals and all other sectors to embrace their ideology. Experience has shown that the CPP-NDF sends new recruits to “on-the-job training' or “practicum” – by arming and sending them to the countryside to work side by side with NPAs. This justifies the continued stay of the army and their training and handling of force multipliers or Civilian Auxiliary Force Geographical Units (CAFGUs) who shall stay as “left-behind forces,” he explained. To note, Maj. Eduardo Malig-on, executive officer representing newly promoted Brig. Gen. Alan Luga, brigade commander, had said earlier in jest that with Bohol declared insurgency-free, Laplap may not have anything to report anymore.