MANILA – The intensified campaign of the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC) has resulted in the recent surrender of 13 sympathizers of the Communist Party of the Philippines-New People's Army (CPP-NPA) in Roxas town, Palawan province on Sept. 19.
In a statement Wednesday, Brig. Gen. Sidney Sultan Hernia, Police Regional Office in Mimaropa (PRO-4B) director, said these surrenderers were former Communist Terrorist Group (CTG) mass base supporters and sympathizers who were recruited sometime between September and October 2017.
The surrender of the CTG sympathizers was a result of the efforts of the Joint Task Force Peacock (JTFP) of the Western Command and the Philippine National Police-Intelligence Group (PNP-IG), Palawan Provincial Police Office Intelligence Unit, 2nd Provincial Mobile Force Company, and Roxas Municipal Police Station, in coordination with the Roxas municipal government and officials of Barangay Dumarao.
The rebel sympathizers are now under the custody of the Joint Task Group-North/Marine Battalion Landing Team-3 for debriefing and proper disposition.
“This accomplishment strongly reveals that the CPP-NPA has been remarkably weakened as a result of NTF ELCAC (National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict). This is why we are urging those who are still in arms to surrender so they may live a better life with the support of our government," he added.
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)
