by Nef Luczon | Philippine News Agency
CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY – A former unit leader of the New People’s Army (NPA) who started in the communist group as a young supply carrier said the group tricked him into believing a better life was in store for him if he joined the movement.
In a statement Friday (Jan. 21), Isaganni Pepito, 35, claimed he was “deceived to join the armed struggle when he was still 28 years old.”
“I am a former member of the youth sector organized by the NPA so that they will have couriers in the hinterlands of Buenavista, Agusan del Norte. When I became a regular NPA [member] in 2015, none of their promises happened. I did not attain a better future,” he said.
Pepito surrendered to the Army’s 8th Infantry Battalion (8IB) on Jan. 16.
He was the team leader of Team Baking, Squad 1, Platoon Dario, Guerilla Front 89, Sub-Regional Committee 2, North Central Mindanao Regional Committee (GF89, SRC2, NCMRC).
The Army said Pepito was one of the remnants of the GF89 that was officially declared dismantled last Nov. 23, 2021.
Pepito lamented that he has yet to get back his wife, Tata Almahan, a former medic of the GF89 and now the medic of the Regional Sentro De Grabidad Compaq, NCMRC, who is still in the mountains and suffering from heart disease.
“I hope that my wife will be able to return and surrender to the government to receive treatment and for our family to be reunited,” he said in the vernacular.
Lt. Col. Anthony Bacus, 8IB Commander, welcomed the decision of Pepito to return to the folds of the law because the Army was able to save another life “from the grasps, destruction, and death brought by the armed struggle.”
“We continue our call to the remaining CNTs (Communist NPA Terrorists) that they come down from the mountains and accept the assistance and programs of the government for your peaceful and happy future,” he said. (PNA) – bny
