Female NPA rebel yields to military

TACLOBAN CITY, Philippines  — A 20-year-old female rebel of the New People's Army surrendered recently to Col. William Peñafiel, commander of the 34th Infantry Battalion based in an interior town of San Jose de Buan in Samar.

Peñafiel, in his report the other day, identified the rebel as Jocelyn Gabin, alias Jane, a resident of this town's Brgy. Cataydungan who has been in the underground movement for the past four years.

Gabin narrated to the military how she suffered a miserable life of inhuman and brutal treatment by the NPA whose members even nearly raped her.

She gnashed her teeth as she recounted the incident when her comrades tried to rape her. She said her life was destroyed by the movement and she could no longer bear it all, prompting her to flee and hide in a safe place before going to the 34th IB camp to surrender.

Military officials put her in custodial debriefing and then turned her over to her mother Cecilia Gabin, in the presence of Poblacion Brgy. Chairman Edusma, Cataydungan councilman Ron Dacles, and the local residents, who served as witnesses.

After the initial custodial debriefing, Peñafiel learned that Gabin has been a member of the medical team of the YAMBI Platoon, which is under the NPA's Central Front Samar-1 of the Samar Provincial Party Committee, which also belongs to the Eastern Visayas Regional Party Committee. 

Gabin said she experienced hunger, sleepless nights, anxiety and hardship in the hands of the NPA, adding that she was not at all treated as promised to her when she was recruited.

She further recalled how she agonized the time when she was hit by an ulcer and fever that no one paid attention of care on her condition. She was even forced to work and walk even if she could no longer stand the pain of her body.

Major General Mario Chan, commander of the 8th Infantry Division, for his part admired the bravery showed by Gabin in deciding to escape from the clutches of the NPA. She made the "right decision to fully re-experience her freedom in the open without guilt and reservation to the people who really desire peace and prosperity," he said.

Chan had iterated his call to other rebels to lay down their arms and feel the warmth of acceptance by the government who has genuine concern for its people.

 "As I have told in the past, I am happier to see these people peacefully reaching their arms to the government for the sake of freedom and democracy than through a bloody resort of struggles. After all, we are all Filipinos and our true enemy is the deprivation of our rights, freedom and democracy," he said.

In continuously reaching out to the people, Chan said the military would keep on intensifying its operations, both in combat and disaster relief actions."

Meanwhile, to emphasize the anti-insurgency campaign in the Visayas, authorities have set the signing of a memorandum of agreement on January 25 at the Leyte Capitol.

Colonel Elizar Egloso, chief of the Police Community Relation Office 8, said the MOA signing will be participated by top officials of the Police Regional Offices of Regions 8 and 7, and the 8th ID, for the creation of the joint peace and security coordinating center.

Leyte Governor Jericho Petilla, as chairman of the Regional Peace and Order Council, will also be present. (FREEMAN)