2 rebel-turned-soldiers hope they won’t face ex-comrades in battle

LABANGAN, ZAMBOANGA DEL SUR—For nearly a year, Gerald Bation and Arnel Lumangcag trekked the hills of Northern Mindanao alongside fellow communist rebels.

As members of a New People’s Army (NPA) unit that operated in Misamis Occidental, they survived several fierce clashes with soldiers.

But in 2014, Bation and Lumangcag surrendered to the military and spoke of how they were deceived into joining the insurgents.

“I also became worried for my safety after an encounter with the military,” said Lumangcag, a 22-year-old native of Don Victoriano, Misamis Occidental.

But being combatants appeared to be their destiny. On Thursday, the two formally became Army soldiers.

After completing basic training with 734 others under the 1st Infantry Division (ID), they would soon be deployed against their former comrades and other lawless groups in Western Mindanao.

“I am hoping that time will not come when we will engage our former comrades in encounter because if it happened, there’s no recourse for me but to fight them because it is my job as a soldier,” Lumangcag said.

Peace prospects

Lumangcag  is looking forward to a formal peace agreement between the government and the communists.

“That’s why we are urging our former comrades to surrender,” he said.

Bation, 25, a native of Lanao del Sur, said that as a soldier, his job now would be to convince people to support the government.

Lumangcag and Bation said they became dissatisfied with the communist ideology, especially after seeing how the NPA forced even poor people to pay revolutionary taxes.

Maj. Gen. Roseller Murillo, commander of the 1st ID, said the case of the two soldiers should serve as an inspiration to their former comrades.—LEAH AGONOY