74 NPAs surrender to authorities: PNP

April 1, 2019

Around 74 members of the New People’s Army ( NPA) surrendered to the authorities over the weekend, according to the Philippine National Police (PNP).

In a press briefing Monday, Police General Oscar Albayalde said around 45 members of the underground communist movement from Laguna, Rizal and Quezon with their arsenal of powerful explosives and 25 high-powered firearms formally surrendered to the Philippine Army and PNP Calabarzon (Cavite- Laguna- Batangas- Rizal- Quezon) over the weekend.

The PNP head said this is a “magnanimous act of goodwill and unity” that they renounced their affiliation with the communist rebels on the same day the NPA marked its 50th anniversary.

Albayalde added communist rebels suffered 29 more defections in Negros Occidental and Iloilo.

“These rebel surrenderees are now free to rebuild their lives and enjoy peace and prosperity with their families and take the opportunity to avail of the government's amnesty program and livelihood assistance under the Enhanced Comprehensive Local Integration Program (E-CLIP),” he said.

E-Clip is the government’s program which establishes halfway houses or receiving facilities where former rebels are to be welcomed and housed for security measures during facilitation of their surrender.

Police Brigadier General Edward Carranza, Calabarzon regional police director, said they have to verify if various firearms, magazines and ammunition surrendered came from a former soldier or policeman.

Carranza said, since June last year, around 70 rebels surrendered.

“This huge number of surrendered personalities is another proof of our intensified effort in internal security operation for the realization of peaceful and secure Southern Tagalog. I urge other rebels to surrender peacefully. We want to help them to rebuild their lives of peace and prosperity with their families and take this opportunity to avail of the government’s amnesty program”, he said in a statement.

Meanwhile, Brigadier General Arnulfo Marcelo Burgos Jr., commander of the 202nd brigade of Philippine Army, said there are only around 100 rebels in Calabarzon and they are expecting another batch of surrenderees.

“We are expecting another batch because they (rebels) found out that some of their members are going down,” Burgos said.

“Second, we have a lot of rebels coming because we are pursuing localized peace talks,” he added. Ella Dionisio/DMS