5 more NPAs yield to Army in Sultan Kudarat
Local News • 23:52 PM Mon Mar 5, 2018
1,048
By:
Edwin O. Fernandez
Captionand Lt. Colonel Harold Cabunoc, 33rd Infantry Battalion commander, pose with five communist rebels who voluntarily surrendered with their guns in Bagumbayan, Sultan Kudarat. (Photo courtesy of 33rd IB)
BAGUMBAYAN,
Sultan Kudarat - Five more communist guerillas from the Indigenous
Peoples (IP) tribe from the mountains of Barangay Sto Nino here have
surrendered to the Army, a military colonel today said.
Lt. Colonel
Harold Cabunoc, commander of the 33rd Infantry Battalion welcomed
the surrenderees in simple surrender rites at 9 a.m. today in Barangay Saripinang,
Bagumbayan.
It appeared
there were pressured by our military combat operations, Cabunoc said of the
joint operations conducted by the 33rd and 57th Infantry
Battalions and 4th Special Forces Battalion of the Philippine
National Police.
They said
they were tired of running away from military pursuit operations and decided to
peacefully surrender to live normal lives, Cabunoc added.
Ka Benong, the
group leader, told military officials that he would like to seek help from the government
to construct concrete roads leading to their village and a public school for
their children.
The Army,
according to Cabunoc, will process their inclusion to the coverage of
Comprehensive Local Integration Program (CLIP) of the government being
implemented by the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG).
Cabunoc added
that he is working on things for the presentation of surrenderees to Sultan
Kudarat Gov. Pax Mangudadatu.
With the surrender of
five NPA rebels today, the number of communist insurgents who surrendered to the Army
rose to 120 since May last year.