NPA leader who guarded Buan yields

A New People’s Army (NPA) commander in charge of guarding captured soldiers, including Army intelligence officer Maj. Noel Buan in 1999, has surrendered to government forces on Mindoro island, Army spokesman Lt. Col. Jose Mabanta said yesterday.

Mabanta identified the rebel as Rodante Faminiano, alias Commander Choy, a "communist hardcore" responsible for the abduction of a colonel and a sergeant of the defunct Philippine Constabulary in 1992 and 1997, respectively.

Faminiano, a guerrilla of 15 years’ standing, secretly arranged for his surrender starting last October and contacted Army, police and local government officials, Mabanta said.

"Faminiano surrendered because of conflicts with other party members and leaders of the movement arising from different factors, which include disillusionment and hardships," he said.

"My comrades have been decimated and many of them have escaped or left. The NPA formation has become a skeleton and its ranks have diminished," Mabanta quoted Faminiano as saying. – Paolo Romero