Army: 11 Red fighters surrender in Quezon

LUCENA CITY –– At least 11 alleged New People’s Army (NPA) rebels surrendered to government representatives in Calauag town in Quezon province on Wednesday, a Philippine Army spokesman said Thursday.

Captain Jayrald Ternio, head of the public affairs office of the Army’s 2nd Infantry Division, said in a press statement that the former rebels turned themselves in to the government’s local negotiating team under the Regional Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (RTF ELCAC) in the Calabarzon region.

Ternio said the rebels would be subjected to reintegration protocols—medical checkups, debriefing, and enrollment in the Duterte administration’s well-funded Enhanced Comprehensive Local Integration Program (E-Clip).

E-Clip offers free medical treatments, education, housing, and legal aid to rebels who would give up.

President Duterte created the National Task Force-ELCAC through Executive Order No. 70 on December 4, 2018.

It aims to provide an efficient means to implement the “whole-of-nation approach,” to achieve peace.

EO 70 taps government agencies and the private sector to bring basic services to the countryside and address the root causes of rebellion.

Edited by Lzb