MANILA — A total of 4,356 New People’s Army (NPA) regular members and their supporters have surrendered to government forces nationwide from Jan. 1 to March 15 this year.
“The figure is composed of 626 NPA regulars and Sangay sa Partido Lokal (SPL) or local party members and 3,730 Militia ng Bayan (MB), Underground Mass Organization (UGMO) members and mass supporters. Majority of surrenders happened in eastern Mindanao particularly in the regions of Davao and CARAGA totaling 97 percent or 4,194,” Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) public affairs office chief Lt. Col. Emmanuel Garcia said in a statement Thursday.
These numbers include the recent surrender of 1,265 NPA supporters and residents of nine barangays of Monkayo town in Compostela Valley and defection of 115 supporters in Trento, Agusan Del Sur.
“The massive surrenders of NPAs and their supporters were attributed to the combined focused military operations, intelligence efforts, civil-military operations, re-integration efforts, peace and development programs of the AFP and PNP; and the intense campaign of local government units in convincing their constituents who are members and supporters of the NPA to go back to mainstream society,” he added.
Garcia said the AFP expects more rebel surrenderers as former NPA members and supporters continue to divulge corruption and deception inside the rebel ranks.
Revelations from former rebels disclosed that most of them were deceived into believing the propaganda and false promises of their leaders.
The rebel surrenderers warned would-be-recruits not to fall for the pattern of deception being done by the NPA terrorists and called on their former comrades to take the peaceful path to change.
“The AFP assures the public that focused military operations against communist terrorists will continue to protect the people and vulnerable communities from terrorist atrocities,” Garcia pointed out. (Priam Nepomuceno/PNA)
