Four members of the New People’s Army (NPA) separately surrendered to government authorities Wednesday in the provinces of Zamboanga del Sur and Zamboanga Sibugay.
Col. Richard Verceles, Area Police Command-Western Mindanao operations chief, said three of the four yielded in Zamboanga del Sur, while one turned himself in Zamboanga Sibugay.
Verceles said Juanito Libay, 53; Gina Fernandez, 31; and Loloy Camdan, 32; surrendered around 1 p.m. in Barangay San Pablo, Dumingag, Zamboanga del Sur.
The three were members of the Barrio Revolutionary Committee (BRC), NPA Guerrilla Front BBC (Big Beautiful Country), Western Mindanao Regional Party Committee.
Verceles said the surrender of the BRC members was facilitated by the police, military, National Intelligence Coordinating Agency, and Municipal Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict led by Dumingag Mayor Gerry Paglinawan.
They took their oath of allegiance administered by Paglinawan in a ceremony at the town hall of Dumingag on the same day.
Meanwhile, Verceles said Rogelio Banloy, 55, yielded in Kabasalan, Zamboanga Sibugay province.
Banloy was a member of the Regional Urban Committee of the NPA’s WMRPC and was involved in “Agaw Armas” (gun snatching) in Siay, Zamboanga Sibugay, the police official said.
The Communist Party of the Philippines-NPA is listed as a terrorist organization by the United States, European Union, the United Kingdom, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and the Philippines.
The National Democratic Front has been formally designated as a terrorist organization by the Anti-Terrorism Council on June 23, 2021, citing it as “an integral and inseparable part” of the CPP-NPA created in April 1973.
Source: Philippines News Agency