Suspected female rebel slain in Occidental Mindoro clash, 9 alleged NPA surrender – Solcom

LUCENA CITY –– At least nine alleged New People’s Army (NPA) rebels surrendered in different parts of Southern Tagalog, while a still unidentified “amazona” (female rebel) was killed in a clash with government forces Monday.

Army Lieutenant Colonel Dennis Cana, public information officer of the military’s Southern Luzon Command based in Camp Nakar, said in a press statement that five of the former rebels turned themselves in Kalayaan, Laguna, and General Nakar, Quezon.

The rebel returnees reportedly turned over three firearms of unspecified caliber.

Cana also disclosed that four other former Red-fighters surrendered in Barangay Monteclaro in San Jose, Occidental Mindoro.

Cana said combined police and Army soldiers also encountered NPA rebels in Magsaysay town in Occidental Mindoro around 6:30 a.m., where a still-unidentified woman rebel was killed.

No casualty among members of the government forces was reported.

The nine rebel returnees were all alleged members of the Southern Tagalog Regional Party Committee (STRPC) of the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP). The rebels’ identities were being withheld for security reasons.

“The recent surrender attests to our earlier prediction that STRPC is virtually on the verge of collapsing and slowly but surely crumbling bits by bits as local governments are facilitating more government services to NPA-infested areas and more and more areas are declaring these NPA as persona non grata,” Cana said.

Cana claimed that since 2018, a total of 661 communist guerrillas from Southern Tagalog have returned to the folds of the law as facilitated by the multi-government agency Task Force Balik-Loob.

The rebel returnees are offered livelihood financing, scholarships, housing, and free legal assistance by the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC) through the Enhanced Comprehensive Local Integration Program (E-Clip).

“This NTF ELCAC is working hard to meet the deadline imposed by President Duterte to end this local armed conflict before he steps down,” Cana stressed.

LZB