NPA member surrenders in Surigao del Sur

SAN FRANCISCO, Agusan del Sur-An alleged New People’s Army (NPA) bomb-maker yielded to the military, the military said Thursday.

Lt. Col. Xerxes Trinidad, commander of the 36th Infantry Battalion based in Tago town in Surigao del Sur, said Edwin Martinez Coquilla surrendered on March 11.

Trinidad said Coquilla, alias Jemar, 21, and a resident of Cabangahan village in Tago, turned himself in, along with nine anti-personnel landmines he had made.

Trinidad said aside from making bombs for the NPA, Coquilla was also the squad leader of Platoon 1 of the NPA’s Northeastern Mindanao Regional Committee.

“The use of IEDs once again proves the terrorist tag of the CPP-NPA terrorists as it continuously violates the Comprehensive Agreement on Respect to Human Rights and International Humanitarian Law (CARHRIHL),” Trinidad said./lb