Rebel leader surrenders in Abra

LA TRINIDAD, Benguet – A ranking rebel leader heading a group of rebels in remote Lacub town in Abra gave up to authorities on Monday, a belated report from the Cordillera police said.

Connie Santiago Valera, 29, who took the nom de guerres as “Ka James, Yasser” surrendered to the police and military operatives on Monday dawn in Sitio Abubutok, Barangay Lenneng, Licuan-Baay town in Abra.

Licuan Baay is the gateway to Lacub town from Bangued, the province’s capital town.

Valera is a ranking leader of the Ilocos-Cordillera Regional Committee of the Communist Party of the Philippines, said Cordillera police director Chief Supt. Benjamin Magalong. He is listed as number 5 in the 4th quarter “Order of Battle of 2012," he continued.

The rebel leader reportedly decided to shun hiding as he could no longer stand the suffering and difficulties while with the remaining rebels in the Cordillera mountains.  

“He was used by the rebels in their various criminal activities in order to generate resources to sustain their existence in the mountains. He decided to surrender to start a normal and peaceful life with the community,” Magalong said.

Operatives from the Regional Public Safety Battalion, Provincial Intelligence Branch of the Abra police, Lacub and Sallapadan policemen, Military Intelligence Group, 41st Infantry Battalion and 503rd Brigade of the Philippine Army joined to convince Valera to surrender.

Valera is now with the Abra police for documentation and debriefing.

Valera’s surrender, Magalong said, “is another accomplishment of government forces in their effort to significantly reduce the number of communist rebels operating in the different parts of the region as he called on the remaining rebels to already yield to the government since they will have a better and peaceful life in the mainstream society rather than hide in the mountains and embrace a failed ideology.”

The Cordillera police earlier claimed there is a continuous decrease of NPA rebels in the region placing their number to no more than four dozen.