Two groups composed of New People’s Army (NPA) guerrillas and violent religious extremists have pledged allegiance to the government in separate rites in two Central Mindanao provinces over the weekend, Army officials announced Tuesday, November 4.
Officials of the Army’s 6th Infantry Division told reporters that the first to yield were 16 combined NPAs and members of the outlawed Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters (BIFF) and Dawlah Islamiya, who agreed to return to the fold of law through the joint efforts of the Army’s 38th Infantry Battalion led by Lt. Col. Erwin Felongco, South Cotabato Gov. Reynaldo Tamayo Jr., and Brig. Gen. Arnold Ardiente, director of the Police Regional Office-12.
The BIFF and Dawlah Islamiya – allies tagged in deadly bombings since 2014 in cities and towns in Region 12, as well as in the adjoining provinces of Maguindanao del Norte, Maguindanao del Sur, and Cotabato City within the Bangsamoro region – are known for fomenting hatred against non-Muslims, a stance condemned by Islamic theologians as contrary to teachings on interfaith solidarity and mutual respect.
The 16 gunmen renounced their membership with the NPA, BIFF, and Dawlah Islamiya before Army officials, Tamayo, and other local executives at the South Cotabato provincial capitol in Koronadal City.
Tamayo, chairman of the multi-sector South Cotabato Provincial Peace and Order Council, provided the former rebels with initial relief supplies and cash assistance to support their reintegration into their hometowns.
Three of the NPAs admitted their involvement in the burning of heavy equipment belonging to construction firms in South Cotabato after owners refused to pay ‘protection money’ or supply their group with rice and other provisions.
In a separate ceremony witnessed by sectoral leaders, eight other NPAs – all from an indigenous highland tribe – also surrendered last weekend to the Army’s 37th Infantry Battalion in Barangay Tibpuan, Lebak town, Sultan Kudarat.
They yielded after more than a week of backchannel dialogues with 37th IB commander Lt. Col. Christopherson Capuyan, his subordinate officers, representatives from the municipal governments of Lebak, Kalamansig, and Palimbang, and officials of the Army’s 603rd Infantry Brigade.
Two of the eight, Artemio Sacao and Rolando Etaw, told reporters they decided to surrender after learning that their former comrades who availed of the government’s Enhanced Comprehensive Local Integration Program (E-CLIP) had been reunited with their families and are now earning as farmers, fishermen, drivers and construction workers.
‘We realized there is nothing good about being members of the New People’s Army, which is a terrorist organization,’ Etaw said in Filipino.