4,670 Reds surrendered from 2016 to 2019

MANILA, Philippines — Over three years from 2016 to 2019, the government has extended financial assistance to 1,788 former New People’s Army fighters and 2,882 of their supporters who have sought to return to the fold of the law, according to Interior Secretary Eduardo Año.

Only last month, ex-communist fighters surrendered 21 firearms which Año described as a “giant leap” to ending the 50-year-old insurgency.

The government is also working to provide P20 million for each barangay that would be declared “conflict-free” and P1.5 million to each conflict-threatened or affected village to fund development projects.—Jeannette I. Andrade