10 NPA 'revolutionary tax' collectors in Bukidnon surrender

COTABATO CITY — Ten members of the New People’s Army from a group that forcibly collected money on monthly basis from hapless farmers and merchants turned in 18 assorted firearms and explosives and pledged allegiance to the government in Maramag, Bukidnon on Tuesday.

Berno Sinunta, Muloy Donat, Manilyn Ampildon, Sabel Buyo, Pus-ok Salubo, Edo Madado, Leonilo Cañadilla, Sibya Gamot, Poto Bay-ao and Warlito Ebudan, all from local indigenous tribes, agreed to surrender through the backchannel intercession of officials of the Army’s 48th Infantry Battalion of the 1003rd Infantry Brigade and local executives in different towns in Bukidnon in Region 10.

The symbolic rite was held at the 48th IB's battalion command post in Maramag, a highland municipality in Bukidnon.

Major Gen. Allan Hambala, commander of the 10th Infantry Battalion, told reporters on Wednesday that he is thankful to the members of different municipal peace and order councils in Bukidnon, their provincial government and officials of the 48th Infantry Battalion and the 1003rd Infantry Brigade under Brig. Gen. Marion Angcao, for cooperating in convincing the ten NPAs to surrender peacefully for them to be reintroduced into mainstream society.

“Obviously, it is via multi-sector cooperation that we can better whip this problem from the bud. I am calling on the few remaining members of this communist terrorist group to return to the fold of law now and thrive peacefully in their respective hometowns,” Hambala said.

The ten NPAs who yielded on Tuesday had confessed to their having forcibly collected, on order of leaders of the terrorist group’s self-styled Sentro de Grabidad-North Central Mindanao Regional Command, monthly “protection money” from hapless farmers and merchants in isolated barangays in hinterland towns in Bukidnon.

Members of NPA units under the Sentro de Gravidad-NCMRC are also feared for their brutal gangland-style execution of villagers on mere suspicion of conniving with either the police or military.

Central committee members of the Sentro de Gravidad-NRMC are wanted for high-profile cases in different courts in Regions 10 and 11, according to local executives in Maramag and Bukidnon's nearby cities of Valencia and Malaybalay, among them city councilors.