MALAYBALAY CITY, Bukidnon – Six members of the New People’s Army (NPA) who surrendered separately this week will be provided the appropriate government economic assistance as they start their new life, an Army official said Friday.
Brigadier Gen. Eric C. Vinoya, commander of the Army’s 403rd Infantry Brigade (IB), said the surrenderers will receive livelihood assistance and other aid packages under the government’s Enhanced Comprehensive Local Integration Program (E-CLIP).
“They will receive firearms remuneration, as well as cash, livelihood, employment, housing, and health assistance,” Vinoya said, as he called on the remaining rebels and their supporters “to embrace peace, go back to the folds of the law.”
Capt. Norman M. Tagros, 403 IB civil-military operations officer, identified one of the surrenderers as a certain Alias Lito, vice commanding officer of the NPA’s Militia ng Bayan under NPA’s Section Committee 89, North Central Mindanao Regional Committee (NMRC).
Lito brought along with him a .45-caliber pistol when he surrendered to the elements of the 8th Infantry Battalion in Impasug-ong town, Bukidnon on Thursday, Tagros said. Impasug-ong, a first-class municipality, is located on the northern part of the province.
Tagros said that on Wednesday, five members of the NPA’s Guerilla Front 68 also surrendered to the elements of the Army’s First Special Forces Battalion in Pangantucan town. He said Alias Gorio, Alias Bryan, Alias Roskie, Alias Benjie, and Alias Ryan surrendered at about 8 a.m.
The NPA’s Guerrilla Front operates in the hinterland areas of Lantapan, Pangantucan, Baungon, Talakag, all located within the Kitanglad Mountain range.
During the custodial debriefing, Tagros said the surrenderers revealed the hardships they had experienced in their stay with the communist organization.
He said the surrenderers felt betrayed by the NPA’s “false promises, particularly the assurance of support for their respective families that was never been given.”
Lt. Col. Ronald M, Illana, the Army’s 8th Infantry Battalion commanding officer, noted that the NPA usually dangles promises of support for potential recruits, but that these are nothing but “deception and lies.”
Illana said the NPA — the armed wing of the Communist Party of the Philippines — “is losing its grasp on its members. Most of them already realized that they have all been deceived and are now looking for ways to make peace with the government.” (Mel Madera/PNA)
