AFP insists surrender of 80 NPA members in Bukidnon ‘not fake’

MANILA, Philippines—The Armed Forces of the Philippines challenged the Communist Party of the Philippines on Tuesday to prove its allegation that the recent surrender of 80 rebels in Bukidnon “smacks of AFP fakery.”

“Once again, the CPP-New People’s Army is resorting to deception and blatant lies to deceive the public about this latest surrender by NPA lumads in Bukidnon. If they are just ordinary lumads, where will they get the 25 firearms that they have surrendered?” said Major General Eduardo del Rosario, Commander of Civil Relations Service.

The CPP in a statement claimed over the weekend that the surrender of the supposed 80 rebels was a “media PR gimmick in their desperate hope to downplay the growth of the revolutionary movement and the intensifying revolutionary armed resistance of the people.”

It added that those presented in the “surrender ceremony” were only local residents “forcibly” asked by the AFP to attend a “military-sponsored assembly.”

“They are made to sign up an attendance sheet only to find out later that they are being accused of being NPA fighters and presented to the media as surrenderees,” it said.

Del Rosario said the military “cannot force the surrender of 80 NPAs, much more use them to fool the media and the local government units who witnessed and officially accepted their formal surrender.”

“Likewise, the surrenderees were led by Benjamin Salusad alias Ka Nonong who joined the NPA 25 years ago and is a well-known NPA commander in the whole province. Will the CPP/NPA still claim that Ka Nonong was fake and just the double of the original?” Del Rosario said.

“In truth, the CPP/NPA leadership cannot accept the fact that more and more people are already so fed up with their atrocities and massive extortion activities that even their NPA fighters are abandoning them,” he added.

Last week, 80 members of the NPA,  led by Ka Nonong, Loloy and Ben, a former commanding officer of Guerrilla Front 6 of the NPA’s Northern Central Mindanao Regional Command, surrendered  to the headquarters of the 8th Infantry Battalion of the Philippine Army in Bukidnon.