Disgruntled NPA amazon yields in Kalinga

BAGUIO CITY — A New People’s Army amazon gave herself up to authorities in Kalinga yesterday, saying she was disgruntled with the policies, leadership squabbles and diminishing mass support of the communist movement.

Hilda Balwog, reportedly ranked No. 45 in the military’s order of battle, yielded to the Alpha Company of the Army’s 21st Infantry Battalion and the police.

Balwog, alias Ka Gretchen, was reportedly a member of the Sandatahang Yunit Kilusang Masa 300 and the Kilusang Larangan Gerilya codenamed "Baggas" (formerly the Kalinga Front Committee), which operates in the southern and eastern portion of the Kalinga town of Balbalan, including the municipalities of Tabuk, Pinukpuk and Tanudan.

Maj. Gen. Romeo Dominguez, chief of the Northern Luzon Command, said he is confident that more NPA guerrillas would also surrender "because they too have realized the futility of their struggle."

He said the government is doing everything to address the root causes of insurgency.

Two days ago, another NPA leader in Nueva Ecija, Loreto Guieb, surrendered to authorities, which the military said shows the demoralization plaguing the communists’ ranks.

Guieb was the deputy secretary-general of the Kilusang Larangang Gerilya-Front 2 of the Nueva Ecija Provincial Party Committee.

Meanwhile, soldiers belonging to the Charlie Company of the 50th Infantry Battalion under a certain Lt. Machete reinforced policemen in Sugpon, Ilocos Sur after they encountered a group of armed men while conducting a marijuana eradication operation in Sitio Nacreng, Barangay Cauayan yesterday morning.

No casualty was reported on the government side.

The authorities did not discount the possibility that the armed men could be NPA rebels who depend highly on the cultivation of marijuana for their funds.

In Eastern Samar, six NPA guerrillas were killed, two others were captured and high-powered firearms were seized in a number of rebel camps in clashes with government troopers last weekend, Brig. Gen. Glenn Rabonsa, commander of the Army’s 8th Infantry Division based in Catbalogan, Samar, said. — With Benjie Villa and Ricky Bautista