NPA Update

At PST II, way back in September we finally got a briefly on the history of the New People's Army (NPA) by our Safety & Security Coordinator (SSC). It appears that the group, while still nominally active, has splinter into many factions that mostly use its name as a front for minor banditry. We still occasionally here rumors of cell towers going down via the NPA for bribes not paid, but nothing confirmed in these parts. There have been a few recent, isolated robberies claimed by the NPA in the past two months but nothing in Northern Luzon.

I hear around town that the NPA was once active here but driven out by the locals long ago. Now their biggest concern is municipal vehicles with the municipal budget in them being hijacked (its happened a few times now in Ifugao) and more locally, during the last big storm and subsequent brown out, someone stole a large length of the power cable along the road apparently to sell for scrap or use themselves. This left us without power for almost a week and the Power Co-op has threatened to not replace it next time as this has been the 2nd incident.

Still, when all is said and done, I live in a very peaceful, quiet corner of our world. At least nobody is writing inflammatory cartoons over here...