PROSPERIDAD, Agusan del Sur — Forty-eight New People’s Army (NPA) fighters, including four commanders, voluntarily surrendered and swore allegiance to the government before top officers of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) at an Army brigade headquarters in sitio Awa, barangay New Leyte, Prosperidad town the other day, a regional Army spokesman reported yesterday.
Lt. Col. Francisco I. Simbajon said the rebel returnees and their line commanders were formally presented to AFP chief of staff Gen. Generoso Senga and Maj. Gen. Cardozo M. Luna, chief of the Army’s Northern, Northeastern and Southern Mindanao Fourth Infantry (Diamond) Division, by Col. Ricardo David Jr., commander of the Caraga region’s 402nd Infantry (Stingers) Brigade based here.
Earlier, the four commanders with their alleged armed followers yielded to Lt. Col. Isidro Purisima, commander of the 30th Infantry Battalion, Simbajon said.
He said the surrenderers led by the "Hudyawons", who were former regular fighters of Front Committee 16 of the Communist Party of the Philippines- Northeastern Mindanao Regional Committee (NEMRC), also surrendered 49 high-powered rifles, hand guns and several rounds of ammunition.
Colonel Simbajon said the rebel returnees formerly operated in San Antonio in Remedios Trinidad Romualdez and Los Angeles, Anticala, Pianing, and Bugsukan, all in the eastern side of Butuan City.
"They gave themselves up and their high- powered firearms because of the intense hardship they suffered in the mountains without food. They also understand that they are only just being used and exploited by the CCP-NPA- NDF (National Democratic Front)," Simbajon said.
He said the rebel returnees received a big amount of cash from the government as immediate assistance equivalent to the cost of firearms they surrendered in line with the AFP’s Balik BarilBayad Agad program.
"They will also be given some productive livelihood support by the national and provincial governments," Colonel Simbajon added.
However, in an interview with a local radio station in Butuan City yesterday afternoon, Ka Maria Malaya, NEMRC spokeswoman, denied that the surrenderers were NPA fighters but "pure bandits" who are molesting the miners in Santiago, Agusan del Norte.
"Dili ka na sila tinuod nga mga NPA" (They are not true NPAs)," Ka Malaya said.
She said that the surrender of the Hudyawons is only a "propaganda ploy" by the AFP which is suffering several defeats in tactical offensives the past months.
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