8 NPA rebels surrender in Sultan Kudarat
In this photo taken Nov. 23, 2016, members of the New People's Army communist rebels with face painted to conceal their identities, stand in formation during ceremonies before a news conference held at their guerrilla encampment tucked in the harsh wilderness. AP/File photo
SULTAN KUDARAT, Philippines — Eight more members of the New People’s Army yielded to the military on Thursday and turned in firearms and two powerful roadside bombs.
They agreed to return to the fold of law and start life all over again through the intercession of Mayor Randy Ecija, Jr. of Senator Ninoy Aquino town in Sultan Kudarat and officials of the Army’s 33rd Infantry Battalion.
Six other NPA groups in the same municipality surrendered one after another in the past seven months to Ecija and the commander of the 33rd IB, Lt. Col. Harold Cabunoc.
The eight guerillas who renounced on Thursday their NPA membership are followers of Ka Bobby and Ka Jimboy, who both surrendered to the 33rd IB and the local government unit of Senator Ninoy Aquino last September.
Major Gen. Arnel Dela Vega of the Army’s 6th Infantry Division said on Friday that the eight NPAs agreed to surrender after learning that all of their more than 70 comrades in the same town who availed of the government’s amnesty program for rebels are now being reintegrated into mainstream society by their LGU and the office of Sultan Kudarat Gov. Pax Mangudadatu.
“They must have felt the government’s sincerity in dealing with their former companions who have surrendered in previous months,” said Dela Vega.
Dela Vega has operational control over the 33rd IB and the 601st and 1st Mechanized Brigades, whose units are deployed in Sultan Kudarat province.
One of the eight NPAs, the 37-year-old Michael Galing, said he and his companions were disappointed with the NPA’s promise of protection from dispossession of their ancestral lands, which enticed them to join the group.
“We have realized that it is only the government that can give us such protection, not the NPA. We were on the run and were always in hiding since we joined the NPA,” Galing said in Visayan dialect.
Dela Vega said he is thankful to the 33rd IB and local officials in Senator Ninoy Aquino for initiating backchannel dialogues with local NPA groups in a bid to foster peace and sustainable development in the municipality.
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