ANOTHER SURRENDERER. A member of the Communist Party of the Philippines-New People's Army (right) surrendered to police and military authorities in Guihulngan City, Negros Oriental on Wednesday (May 25, 2022). He also turned over a .38-caliber revolver. (Photo courtesy of the Negros Oriental Provincial Police Office)
DUMAGUETE CITY – A Communist Party of the Philippines-New People’s Army (CPP-NPA) guerrilla surrendered Wednesday morning to police and Army personnel in Guihulngan City, Negros Oriental.
An initial report from the Negros Oriental Provincial Police Office (NOPPO) identified the man as alias "Ka Justine" or "Roden", a resident of Sitio Natuling in Barangay Budlasan, Canlaon City, who also turned over a .38-caliber revolver.
Authorities have yet to provide more details as the surrenderer is still undergoing debriefing.
His surrender was made possible through the coordination between the Canlaon City police and the 62nd Infantry Battalion of the Philippine Army.
It is also the result of an ongoing intensified campaign of the local Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (TF-ELCAC) under President Rodrigo Duterte’s whole-of-nation approach, the NOPPO report said.
Provincial police director Col. Germani Mallari said through the joint efforts of the Philippine National Police, the 302nd Infantry Brigade and the 303rd Infantry Brigade, and the different Army units under them, they will “continue legal offensives and other campaigns against the insurgency which poses a threat to the peace and order in the province”.
The CPP-NPA is listed as a terrorist organization by the United States, European Union, the United Kingdom, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and the Philippines.
The National Democratic Front has been formally designated as a terrorist organization by the Anti-Terrorism Council on June 23, 2021, citing it as “an integral and inseparable part” of the CPP-NPA created in April 1973. (PNA)
