2 NPA guerillas surrender in Benguet

LA TRINIDAD, Benguet -- The Benguet Provincial Police Office presented two  New People’s Army rebels who surrendered to government authorities here at the Benguet police headquarters in Camp. Dangwa on July 14.

Police named them as “Ka Rebo” and “Ka Kababayan.”

They were presented by Benguet police director Col. Elmer Ragay, Cordillera police deputy regional director for operations Col. John Chua and DILG-Benguet director Rufina Fegcan. 

“Ka Rebo” was team leader of the NPA’s Kilusang Larangan Guerilla operating in Upper Tabuk, Lubuagan and Tanudan in Kalinga and later in Tubo in Abra, Tadian in Mountain Province and Quirino in Ilocos Sur.

He turned over a Cal. 45 pistol.

 “Ka Kabayan” who was also a team leader under the KLG inMountain Province particularly in Sadanga and Bontoc also turned over an M14 rifle.

 The two   said that they surrendered due to the hardship, hunger and exhaustion they experienced in the hinterlands of the Cordillera.

“We decided to go down the mountains and surrender since we have been experiencing hardships and hunger. We are exposed to various elements such as mosquitoes, the heat of the sun and also being soaked under the rain. Life in the mountains being a rebel is very hard,” Ka Rebo said.

Ragay said the two were encouraged by their former comrades who have earlier surrendered. 

He added they are among the four rebels who surrendered this month.

 The surrender of the two rebels was through effort of the Regional and Provincial Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict, Benguet police, Police Regional Offivce, Armed Forces of the Philippines, NICA and barangay and municipal local government units.

Fegacan thanked the rebel returnees for returning back to the folds of the law and doing it in time with the 33rd Foundation Day celebration of the Cordillera Administrative Region on July 15.

 Chua said the recent surrender of the rebels in the different provinces of the Cordillera shows the efficiency of ELCAC or the whole-of-a-nation approach against the communist terrorist groups in the region.

The rebel returnees will be processed under the Enhanced Comprehensive Local Integration Program (E-CLIP) in order to receive welfare assistance, livelihood assistance, and incentives for the surrendered firearms. (JDP/RMC- PIA CAR)