by 1Lt Terence P Ylanan

Nueva Ecija (29 March) -- Residents from four towns of Nueva Ecija and two municipalities of Pangasinan staged protest and prayer rallies and candle lighting in a bid for the end the communist bloody history in the province. They all join voices in condemning the rebel group's existence which according to them had pushed them through the years to suffer in pain, in fear and in hunger. The New People's Army is supposed to celebrate today its 38th founding anniversary.

Since the existence of the NPA on March 29, 1969, the members of the rebel group celebrated their anniversary by means of conducting violent assaults against agents of the state and civilians who were not supportive of their agenda. For 37 years the civilian populace are continously becoming indignant but have remained mum due to fear.

Today's display however is a clear manifestation of local populace's clamor for peace and the end of violence it also manifest that they have found the courage to voice out their concern.

In Cuyapo, Nueva Ecija, an estimated one thousand residents took to the streets with placards bearing the words "38 taong anibersaryo ng NPA, 38 taong pahirap sa bayan", "NPA- itigil na ang karahasan at pagpatay".

Municipal Mayor Pacifico B Monta led an estimated one thousand five hundred residents from barangays Maasin, Sampaloc, Buted, Osmena, Tebag and Alula -- all of Talugtog, Nueva Ecija converged at the municipal gymnasium after they completed a one-hour motorcade around their municipality while chanting over loud speakers for the total expulsion of the NPA rebel group from their municipality. Their call for peace was joined by residents from the villages of Guimba also of Nueva Ecija who also displayed posters bidding the NPA to never return in their municipality.

Meanwhile, Brgy Captain Freddie de Guzman of Brgy Parista, Lupao, Nueva Ecija led an estimated seven hundred residents in a motorcade along San Jose City and Lupao national highway in an effort to voice out their condemnation of the violence perpetrated by the NPA. In Umingan and San Quintin both of Pangasinan, residents lit candles in the center of their barangays and staged a short prayer vigil while trying to extend the same message to the members of the rebel group.

Brgy Captain Freddie de Guzman hopes that in the years to come the rebellion that had caused them moral and physical anguish will only be a distant memory and that their children will no longer experience the pain.