Two more in Sultan Kudarat bolt from NPA

COTABATO CITY --- Two members of the New People’s Army balked from burning construction equipment of three firms as ordered and surrendered instead to the Army the other day.

The duo, both members of group that earlier burned bulldozers, payloaders and dump trucks of construction firms, one of which is the Gemma Construction Company, in nearby towns in South Cotabato, returned to the fold of law via the local government unit of Lebak, Sultan Kudarat and the Army’s 37^th Infantry Battalion.

They turned over a firearm each to officials of the 37^th IB before renouncing their membership with the NPA during a simple surrender rite in Lebak, a seaside town in Sultan Kudarat. 

The two guerillas, who pledged to reform for good in the presence of local officials, had told reporters they were ordered by their leaders to burn the construction equipment of three private companies that refused to shell out “protection money” on a monthly basis.

One of them said they hesitated to carry out the mission since most workers of the construction outfits they were to subject to arson attacks are poor members of the indigenous communities.

Major Gen. Juvymax Uy, commander of the Army’s 6^th Infantry Division, said the two NPAs, whose names he declined to reveal pending their relocation to safer areas, shall be reintroduced to mainstream society by local officials and the 603^rd Infantry Brigade based in Lebak.

The two men belonged to the NPA’s self-styled East Daguman Front-Far South Mindanao Region, whose leaders are mostly wanted for criminal cases pending in different courts in central Mindanao.

More than a hundred NPAs have surrendered in batches to units of 6^th ID since last year.