SURRENDER. Maj. Gen. Diosdado Carreon, the Army’s 6th Infantry Division commander (2nd from right), receives a firearm from one of three New People’s Army recruiters who yielded to the military in Maguindanao on Monday (June 23, 2020). The three surrenderers (inset) vowed never to return to rebel life and live peacefully with their families. (Photo courtesy of DXMY-Cotabato)
COTABATO CITY – Three communist New People’s Army (NPA) recruiters surrendered to military authorities in Maguindanao on Tuesday afternoon.
Maj. Gen. Diosdado Carreon, commander of the Army’s 6th Infantry Division (6ID) and Joint Task Force Central (JFTC), and Brig. Gen. Wilbur Mamawag, chief of the 603rd Infantry Brigade, welcomed the rebels during simple surrender rites at 6ID base in Camp Siongco, Datu Odin Sinsuat, Maguindanao.
During the ceremony, NPA surrenderers John Eras, Marin Kuner and Leary Bernabe renounced their NPA membership and vowed to reform for good.
Mamawag said the trio belonged to the NPA-Daguma Front operating in the hinterlands of South Upi in Maguindanao and Kalamansig and Lebak in Sultan Kudarat.
The former NPA recruiters said their work entails ensuring the NPA ranks of active guerrillas and mass base supporters continued to grow.
“We are convinced of the government’s project giving communist rebels the opportunity to reform and live normal lives," Eras said in vernacular during an interview with reporters at the sidelines of the surrender ceremony.
Eras told military officials that on many occasions he and his group managed to elude military operations by simply mingling with the civilians during encounters. He said he and his two companions have grown tired of “empty promises” from the rebel movement.
"We have been in the movement for the past five years but nothing has changed actually, we remained poor and hardly eat three times a day, we want to live normal lives,” Eras said.
They handed over to the Army two assault rifles and a .45-caliber pistol. More than a hundred NPAs operating under the 6ID area of operation in Central Mindanao have surrendered in the past 12 months.
The 6ID now has jurisdiction over military units in Maguindanao, Sultan Kudarat, North Cotabato, South Cotabato and part of Sarangani provinces where the NPA has guerrilla forces.
Eras also said that many NPA rebels still in the mountains are willing to go down and live normal lives with their families. (PNA)
