Mindoro Occidental Gov. Eduardo Gadiano
CAMP CAPINPIN, Tanay, Rizal – One week after receiving authority to talk peace with the New People’s Army (NPA) terrorists, Mindoro Occidental Gov. Eduardo Gadiano welcomed three former rebels to mainstream society on Monday.
The military said one of the rebels is a 16-year-old minor while the two others are aged 18 and 19, with the latter recruited by the NPAs three years ago, also as a minor.
Col. Jose Augusto Villareal, Commander of the 203rd Infantry Brigade which has operational jurisdiction over Mindoro Island, identified the former rebels as Yamay Liwan alias Marvin, Layag Sanyuan alias Layka, and alias Celia whose true name is being withheld due to her being a minor.
“It is heart-breaking to learn that our three former rebels are all indigenous people whose innocence and peaceful nature was exploited by the NPA terrorists because they can no longer deceive and recruit the low-landers who are more informed of their dwindling relevance and influence in our society”, Villareal said.
The former rebels said they are members of the NPA’s Kilusang Larangang Guerilla MAV and have been involved in several encounters with government troops on the island.
Villareal acknowledged the soldiers’ “firm resolve to rescue more IPs and child-warriors who have fallen victims to the NPA terrorists’ desperate and evil acts in the battlefield which are against internationally accepted rules of warfare.”
He also condemned the NPA terrorists’ “recruitment, deception, and exploitation of our Mangyans as well as our youth which did not only put them in physical danger but also squandered the bright future that they could possibly live.”
Earlier, Gadiano personally fetched the surrenders from their homes in Rizal, Brgy. Manoot in Occidental Mindoro.
“As the Provincial Chief Executive and Chairman of the Provincial Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict or PTF ELCAC, it is my responsibility to ensure that President Duterte’s call for national unity and reconciliation will be realized because I believe that peace is the only way to achieve prosperity for my people,” he said.
PTF ELCAC is the counterpart in the provincial level of the National Task Force ELCAC which President Duterte chairs and was created by virtue of Executive Order Number 70.
Gadiano urged NPA terrorists to “put down your arms, live peaceful lives with your families and join the entire province in our quest for just and lasting peace which every Mindoreño truly deserves.”
The surrender is the second in four days in the 2nd Infantry Division’s area of operations following the surrender of an NPA leader from San Jose Del Monte, Bulacan who turned-over to the military his automatic rifle last Friday.
Maj. Gen. Arnulfo Marcelo Burgos Jr., Commander of the Philippine Army’s 2ID which covers Southern Tagalog, described the series of surrenders in their area as a tangible expression of the public’s rising trust and support to the soldiers and the government.
“Your soldiers’ professionalism in the battlefield coupled with the government’s immediate and transparent implementation of the Enhanced Comprehensive Local Integration Program or E-CLIP has conveyed a message of sincerity across the region which encouraged the enemies of the state to abandon the armed struggle and, instead, be part of the solution to end our beloved country’s woes,” Burgos said.
“We are expecting more surrenders in the coming days because the NPA terrorists are running out of space to evade our relentless combat operations. They are now fearing for their lives because of our additional forces and armaments which we recently deployed and they are now getting hungry because the people who used to support them have already abandoned them after realizing that these terrorists are irrelevant to the lives of the Filipino people,” he added.
The military has deployed more ground, air, and naval assets in Mindoro as part of its push to decimate the few remaining NPAs in Southern Tagalog who were forced to evacuate and seek refuge in the mountains of the island province after suffering unprecedented defeat in Calabarzon.
To date, a total of 568 former rebels from the area of 2ID have returned to the folds of law since E-CLIP was implemented in 2016.
Through Resolution Number 171 signed on June 17, the Provincial Council of Occidental Mindoro authorized Gadiano to lead the Local Peace Engagement with the Communist Party of the Philippines and the NPA terrorists. (PR)
