Are rural Negros and Panay safe for westerners?

I've seen a lot of people recommend Bacolod and Iloilo and they look nice enough. I'm not a city person I've lived rural most of my life and I like hiking. So I'd like to go out and enjoy nature. Cebu was nice enough but the traffic on the whole island would inevitably drive me crazy.

I've read the Army claimed to have destroyed the fronts of the NPA in November but considering they just killed an NPA accountant it has to still be big enough to have an accountant. How safe is it for westerners to get out and about on those islands?