By BENJIE VILLA

HAD not the province of Aurora been included into Region 3 during the middle of this year, Tarlac could have had been classified either as the first or second most rebel-infested province in Central Luzon.

This information was gathered from the intelligence community, but it was reportedly stripped off from the recent report of Central Luzon’s regional peace and order council (RPOC).

Based on reports of the Armed Forces’ Northern Luzon Command (Nolcom) based at Camp Gen. Servillano Aquino in Tarlac City, there are exactly 24 barangays in Central Luzon that are under the political control of the mainstream Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) through the "barrio revolutionary committees" of its so-called "people’s revolutionary government."

Around 320 villages in the region are also similarly "threatened" with the rebel movement’s influenced, even as Nolcom commander, Maj. Gen. Rodolfo Garcia, disclosed that 56 village chiefs in Central Luzon who won in the recent barangay elections were either fielded or campaigned for by the CPP and its armed wing, the New People’s Army (NPA).

Of the 24 rebel-controlled barangays, about 10 are in Tarlac, particularly in Gov. Jose Yap Sr.’s hometown of San Jose, and in the municipalities of Sta. Ignacia, Camiling, Gerona and La Paz, as well as in Tarlac City.

This alone makes Tarlac a communist "hot spot," although Garcia said that Nueva Ecija could have more CPP-controlled villages.

It was here in Tarlac where the NPA was established by CPP cadres led by self-exiled rebel leader Jose Ma. Sison with the help of former rebel commander, Bernabe "Kumander Dante" Buscayno, on March 29, 1969.

During the martial law era, the NPA grew in armed strength and influence in the province, but this waned in the late 1980s and early 1990s.

Last year, the NPA leadership in the province was nearly wiped out after around 15 top-ranking rebels were killed in an encounter in Sta. Ignacia town, as among those slain in the firefight then was Nelson Mesina, alias "Ka Dondie," the insurgents’ suspected provincial commander.

Since then, the NPA’s Tarlac provincial command was called the Nelson Mesina Command, and notably surpassed its previous strength, as local guerillas were able to carry out at least three successful assassinations, the most celebrated of which was the killing in broad daylight of retired Col. Leodegario Adalem.

Adalem was held responsible by the CPP-NPA for the murder in the early 1980s of Ifugao tribal leader, Macli-ing Dulag.

Aside from this, the Nelson Mesina Command was able to destroy at least two cellular sites of the telecom firm, Smart Communications, late last year.

Meanwhile, the mountain ranges of Aurora, particularly the Sierra Madre complex, are known to be lairs of the NPA.

Aurora was included into Central Luzon last May by virtue of a presidential decree issued by President Arroyo, which detached it from Southern Luzon.

Since the NPA was established, the Sierra Madre mountain ranges have served as "rest and recreation" areas for the rebels, as well as home to training camps and "mobile headquarters" of the revolutionary movement for Central and Northern Luzon provinces.

When CPP spokesman, Gregorio "Ka Roger" Rosal, suffered a mild stroke about a couple of years ago, he was even reportedly spirited into the Sierra Madre, where he was able to recuperate.