Top NPA leader surrenders

CAMP OLIVAS, Pampanga — Wanting to live a normal life and unhappy with internal squabbles in the underground movement, a top leader of the New People’s Army (NPA) in the Ilocos-Cordillera region has voluntarily surrendered to military authorities, the Armed Forces’ Northern Luzon Command (Nolcom) said yesterday.

This developed as suspected guerrillas of the NPA’s rival armed group, the Rebolusyonaryong Hukbo ng Bayan (RHB), gunned down retired SPO3 Crisanto Aglusolos while he was driving his tricycle in Barangay Nagbayan in Castillejos, Zambales last Tuesday.

Aglusolos was reportedly active against the RHB’s collection of "revolutionary taxes" from local residents.

Lt. Gen. Rodolfo Garcia, Armed Forces’ vice chief of staff, said the surrender of 44-year-old Rogelio Laguinday, alias Ka Ruso, Chevez and Wadi, vice commander of the Sandatahang Yunit Kilusang Masa 200, Kilusang Larangan Gerilya-Baggas under the Ilocos-Cordillera regional committee of the Communist Party of the Philippines, shows the "worsening discord in the underground movement."

Garcia, the concurrent Nolcom chief, said Laguinday surrendered "to live a normal life with his family."

"He was no longer happy with the way things were going in the movement, particularly the unending squabbles on financial matters and leadership differences," he said.

A Nolcom statement quoted Laguinday as saying, "We are surviving but at the people’s expense… I cannot go on feeding my family with funds imposed by the movement (on) poor folk."

Garcia said the NPA and the RHB are out to kill their members who have surrendered to the government or are suspected to be spying on them.

"I was not surprised when it was confirmed that the NPA was responsible for the death of (former NPA chief Rolando) Kintanar. There are still other top (former) leaders and members of the CPP, National Democratic Front and NPA on their hit list," he said.

Garcia recalled that in 1998, the NPA launched "Operation Missing Link" to clamp down on suspected spies.

"Hundreds of suspected military informers and deep penetration agents have been summarily executed by the NPA since Operation Missing Link was implemented. Some were buried alive and their remains were later found in mass graves in various parts of Bicol and Quezon, as well as in the Visayas and Mindanao," he said.

He said the RHB has also been hunting down its members who have gone back to the fold of the law.

According to the Nolcom, the surrender of NPA and RHB fighters has significantly reduced their strength in Central Luzon.

As of last October, it said the NPA membership had been reduced from 818 to only 764, while RHB’s went down from 274 to 271. — With Ric Sapnu and Benjie Villa