NPA surrenderee says SK local official supporting communist movement

PRES. QUIRINO,
Sultan Kudarat – An elected local official in Sultan Kudarat has been
supporting the communist New Peoples’ Army (NPA), an Army official said.

Lt. Colonel
Harold Cabunoc, the chief of 33rd Infantry Battalion based here,
said three of the eight NPAs who surrendered to his unit on Friday in
Bagumbayan, Sultan Kudarat had confessed about the local official’s role in the
movement.

They executed
affidavits linking a local government official to the communist NPA
terrorists, Cabunoc told the Inquirer. He did not name the official.

He
facilitated the organization of the lumads as NPA fighters purposely to reclaim
our ancestral lands. He welcomed ‘Ka George’ and ‘Ka Makmak’ in his house to
recruit us in May 2015, one NPA rebel who surrendered told Cabunoc.

I will
facilitate the filing of administrative charges against the local official for
conniving with the communist NPA terrorists, Cabunoc said, adding that
Mindanao is under Martial Law.

Cabunoc said
the rebels decided to come down after getting exhausted running away from
military pursuit operations in the hinterlands of Sultan Kudarat.

The Army is
now backed by the PNP Special Action Forces unit in hunting down the rebels in
the borders of Sultan Kudarat, South Cotabato and Sarangani.

To date,
Cabunoc said, his unit had welcomed a total of 111 rebels, mostly belonging to
Dulangan Manobo tribe.

The latest
rebels to come down were identified as Romeo Dongco alias Taiwan, 29 years
old, Jun-Jun Okom, 29, Nasio Dungco, 28, Binta Okom, 50, Batoy Tayak, 49, Goong
Tugi, 47, Justin Tugi, 21, and a child warrior named Raffy, 16.

Cabunoc said
he expect more rebels to surrender due to the ongoing pursuit operations
against them. (Edwin O. Fernandez)