This rebel gave up because of love

CATBALOGAN, Samar — "I am just human. I, too, has the right to love and to be loved."

Thus explained 29-year-old New People’s Army (NPA) commander Rodolfo Dora, a native of Calbayog City, why he left the underground movement to be with the woman he loves.

Dora said he decided to abandon the NPA, which he served for over four years, when the movement discouraged him from marrying Helen Francisco, whom he met in the village of Alegria in San Isidro, Northern Samar while he and his comrades were conducting intelligence work there in June last year.

When he had to choose between her and the underground movement, "my love for my wife won, I really love her so much," he said. He admitted though that it was too late for him to avoid her since they had become intimate to each other.

He said he and Francisco got married last December "without the sanction of the NPA organization." But this, he added, bothered him so much, "so I finally decided to surrender."

Ignoring threats to their lives, Dora and his brother Violito availed themselves last week of the government’s Balik-Baril program, getting a P18,000 check for yielding an M-16 Armalite rifle and a caliber .45 Colt pistol.

A Calbayog City councilor helped arrange their surrender to the Military Intelligence Group at Camp Lucban in this capital town. They were welcomed by Maj. Gen. Romeo Dominguez, commander of the 8th Infantry Division.

Dora said he was assigned to the Sandatahang Yunit Propaganda (SYP) of the Northern Front Committee 1, Eastern Visayas Regional Party Committee of the Communist Party of the Philippines-NPA-National Democratic Front.

As an SYP leader, he was tasked with recruitment in the western and northern parts of Samar. It was during such an activity in San Isidro town when he met Francisco.