2 NPA commanders, 6 followers yield in SK

LEBAK, Sultan Kudarat --- Two commanders of the New People’s Army and six others surrendered here this week, a regional military official said Saturday.

Major Gen. Juvymax Uy, commander of the Army’s 6^th Infantry Division, said the two NPA commanders, Bakilo and Ranger, and their followers yielded through the backchannel efforts of the 37^th Infantry Battalion and local officials.

They turned in assault rifles, two .45 caliber pistols and a fragmentation grenade before they pledged allegiance to the government in symbolic rites at the headquarters of the 37^th IB in Barangay Tebpuan here.

More than a hundred NPAs, among them adolescents, have surrendered in batches to the Army’s 37^th and 38^th IBs under the 603^rd Brigade since 2021.

Uy said local government units in the provinces of Sultan Kudarat and in Sarangani were instrumental in securing their surrender.

The former NPAs who have returned to the fold of law are now being reintroduced to mainstream society.  (John Unson)