MALUNGON, Sarangani –– At least 76 New People’s Army (NPA) rebels have surrendered since the start of the year due to continuous military operations, officials here revealed.
Lt. Col. Victorino Seño, deputy chief of the Army’s 1002nd Infantry Brigade, said the NPA fighters also yielded their firearms.
Seño added that difficulties in the rebels’ life in the mountains precipitated the surrender.
“The communist rebels operating in our jurisdiction are getting weaker with their comrades getting back to the fold of the law,” Seño said in an interview.
No data was made available for the NPA combatants who surrendered to the brigade last year.
The Duterte administration has dangled the Enhanced-Comprehensive Local Integration Program to lure communist guerrillas to abandon their armed struggle against the government.
Under this program, each former rebel is entitled to livelihood assistance of P50,000, an immediate cash grant of P15,000, and at least P50,000 for a surrendered high-powered firearm.
Seño claimed that the three active NPA fronts in the brigade’s jurisdiction were “no longer capable of mounting major attacks against government forces” in the area.
The 1002nd Infantry Brigade covers Sarangani, South Cotabato, Davao del Sur, Davao Occidental, and parts of Cotabato and Sultan Kudarat provinces.
Seño said focused military operations were ongoing against the communist rebels.
He added that the military is combatting communist recruitment in the area through dialogues with the parents and the youth and by intensifying their community support program.
Lieutenant Rezel Faith Sela, 1002nd Infantry Brigade civil-military officer, said the government had closed at least five Lumad schools offering alternative learning systems to remote communities as these have been “indoctrinating Lumad children to overthrow the government.”
In 2017, President Duterte threatened to bomb Lumad schools, saying the learning centers only taught children to rebel against the government.
The Save Our Schools (SOS) Network deplored the closure of Lumad schools implemented under an order issued by Education Secretary Leonor Briones.
In a statement, Rius Valle, SOS Mindanao spokesperson, said the “outrageous” closure of the Salugpongan schools proved that the Department of Education had failed to uphold its mandate to “promote the right of our Lumad students to education, as well as their right to protection.”
The SOS Network has vehemently denied the military’s claims that the Lumad schools were breeding grounds for communist recruitment./lzb