MANILA, Philippines - More than a platoon of New People’s Army (NPA) rebels who had fought government forces for more than 10 years, surrendered to Army authorities in Bukidnon last Monday.
The NPA group led by Benjamin Salusad, alias Ka Nonong, also brought along 50 of their “Militia ng Bayan” supporters when they presented themselves with their high-powered firearms at the headquarters of the Army’s 8th Infantry Battalion in Maramag town before noon Monday.
Composed mainly of lumads, the NPA guerrillas said they could no longer bear the internal rift in the underground movement in northern Mindanao.
“We could no longer withstand the discrimination. Because we are all lumads, we were treated as if we were sub-humans by the rest of our comrades who were all from the lowlands,” Salusad told Maj. Julio Eugene Osias IV, spokesman of the Army’s 4th Infantry Division.
Salusad’s group operated under the NPA’s Northern-Central Mindanao Regional Committee and had been at the forefront of most rebel maneuvers against the government in Bukidnon and nearby areas.
Salusad admitted that they were also involved in extortion activities, but said they only received 10 percent of the collections, with their lowland comrades getting 50 percent and the NPA national leadership, the remaining 40 percent.