The 303rd IBde commander BGen. Orlando Edralin has retired failing to achieve his goal of crushing the New People’s Army (NPA) and the entire revolutionary movement in Negros island, despite repeated declarations. He was replaced by Brig. Gen. Ted Dumosmog replaced on November 5.

BGen. Edralin served as brigade commander since January 2023 and retired upon reaching the mandatory retirement age of 57. The brigade under his leadership uttered hogwash when it announced its dismantling of three guerrilla fronts, including Central Negros 1 and 2, the Southeast Front, and the Regional Strike Force of the region.

The Negros Island NPA Regional Operations Command (Apolinario Gatmaitan Command) stated that the NPA units in the five guerrilla fronts in the island remain intact and continue to operate in many towns. “They continue to perform the three integrated tasks of armed revolution, base building, and agrarian revolution,” the regional command spokesperson Ka Maoche Legislador said.

Ka Maoche added that despite the deployment of hundreds of soldiers and additional armed forces in the island in recent years, the NPA has continued to arouse, organize, and mobilize the people of Negros. “The NPA, led by the Communist Party of the Philippines and wholeheartedly supported by the masses, is determined to dismantle and totally collapse this moribund system and establish a society based on genuine democracy and lasting peace,” he said.

Aside from the fake claims of destroying the guerrilla fronts, the brigade under BGen. Edralin also declared the provinces of Negros Oriental and Occidental as “Stable Internal Peace and Security (SIPS).” The brigade was also touted as the “Fightingest unit” (sic) in the country due to its supposed successes. The 3rd ID even awarded BGen. Edralin with the Distinguished Service Star, the third-highest award given by the Philippine Army.

Ka Maoche retorted that these merits and monickers are mere “duplicitous declarations” aimed at painting a picture of a weakening armed revolution. “There is nothing to celebrate nor laud with his retirement…and nothing else to expect with his replacement, BGen. Dumosmog, but the continued human rights violations in Negros island that they decorate as awards and laurels,” Ka Maoche added.

BGen. Dumosmog is a member of the Philippine Military Academy “Sambisig” class of 1991. He came from the 4th ID based in Cagayan de Oro City.

“This is but a change of face of the AFP’s same old fascist cloth,” Ka Maoche said. The 303rd IBde and its units, including the 79th, 62nd, and 94th IB, are among the most brutal battalions under the Marcos regime. At least 745 cases of human rights violations have been recorded in Negros Island, with over 177,000 victims.