(Image courtesy of Police Regional Office 12-Soccsksargen)
COTABATO CITY – Twelve communist New People’s Army (NPA) rebels surrendered to police authorities during the implementation of the Simultaneous Anti-Criminality Law Enforcement Operation (SACLEO) in the region on Thursday.
The NPA surrenderers are from the provinces of South Cotabato, Sarangani, and Sultan Kudarat. They opted to yield because of physical exhaustion.
Brig. Gen. Jimili Macaraeg, the Soccsksargen police director, said 10 out of the 12 surrenderers were from South Cotabato, one from Sarangani, and one from Sultan Kudarat.
All the surrenderers brought along with them their firearms.
“It is the deception, futile armed struggle, and the realization that government has a clearer intention to address their issues that prompted the surrenderers to firmly resolve to be on the folds of government,” Macaraeg said in a statement Thursday afternoon.
“I am overwhelmed that they have finally committed their allegiance to the government and lay down their arms,” he said of the surrenderers’ “right choice" of leaving the communist ideology, urging other rebels to follow suit.
The Communist Party of the Philippines - NPA is listed as a terrorist organization by the United States, the European Union, the United Kingdom, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and the Philippines.
The National Democratic Front has also 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)
