10 NPAs surrender in Tacurong City

TACURONG CITY, Philippines — Ten members of the New Peoples Army surrendered here Wednesday through the joint intercession of different units of the Police Regional Office-12.

Brig. Gen. Alexander Tagum, PRO-12 director, said Friday the 10 rebels belonged to the NPA’s self-styled Guerilla Front 73-Far South Mindanao Regional Command.

Most leaders of the Guerilla Front-73 are wanted in different courts for heinous offenses, including multiple murder, arson, trafficking of narcotics and cattle theft.

The 10 NPAs turned in a firearm each and explosives before they renounced their membership with the group during a symbolic rite here last Wednesday.

Tagum said they agreed to return to the fold of law through backchannel dialogues with officials of PRO-12’s Regional Mobile Force-12, led by Col. Jemuel Siason, and the municipal police force in Bagumbayan, Sultan Kudarat.

The 10 rebels operated in the hinterlands in Region 12’s Saragani, South Cotabato and Sultan Kudarat provinces, where they collected from hapless farmers “protection money” on monthly basis to sustain their needs.

They pledged allegiance to the government in the presence of local leaders and key police officials Wednesday at a police company command post at the EJ Montilla area here.

Siason and officials of the RMFB-12’s 1202nd Maneuver Company, who helped secure the surrender of the 10 NPAs, separately told reporters they are expecting the surrender soon of more Guerilla Front 73 members based on feelers coming in.

Tagum said credit for the surrender of the 10 NPAs has to go partly to the police personnel in Bagumbayan, an upland town in Sultan Kudarat, one of the four provinces covered by PRO-12.