12 more NPAs surrender in Sultan Kudarat province

COTABATO CITY, Philippines — Twelve more members of the New People’s Army surrendered to the Police Regional Office 12 Friday.

The 12 guerillas, led by Felimon Villegas, turned in assorted firearms and explosives as they renounced their NPA membership before officials of the Sultan Kudarat Provincial Police Office and Gov. Pax Ali Mangudadatu during a surrender rite in Isulan town.

Villegas and his followers belonged to the NPA’s self-styled Guerilla Front Daguma, whose leaders are wanted for high-profile criminal cases pending in different courts.

Brig. Gen. Jamili Macaraeg, director of the PRO-12, said Saturday the group agreed to return to the fold of law through the intercession of units under the Sultan Kudarat provincial police and the office of Mangudadatu, a first term governor.

Macaraeg said Villegas and his men operated in the hinterlands in Sultan Kudarat’s adjoining Bagumbayan and Senator Ninoy Aquino towns and in Lake Sebu, South Cotabato.

More than a hundred NPAs surrendered last year to PRO-12 units in the provinces of South Cotabato, Cotabato, Sarangani and Sultan Kudarat through the efforts of local government units and community leaders, among the chieftains of indigenous tribes.