3 NPA members surrender in North Cotabato

NORTH COTABATO - Tired of difficult life and separation from their families, three New People’s Army guerillas on Thursday left the movement and surrendered to the authorities in Magpet town.

Lt. Col. Nilo Vinluan, commander of the 57th Infantry Battalion, which has jurisdiction over Magpet and nearby towns in the province, said Jimmy Ampoy, Larry Maasan Bayawan, and Danny Tambonan, all resented having joined the NPA.

Vinluan said the three rebels decided to leave their group, holding out at the hinterland border of North Cotabato and Bukidnon provinces, after realizing that they were duped into joining the NPA in exchange for payment for every attack on military positions anywhere in the two provinces.

“According to them, life was so difficult in the jungle and that they could no longer stand the sight of hapless farmers being subjected to taxation, at gunpoint. These three former NPAs are not hardened terrorists so they decided to yield,” Vinluan said.

He said they need to keep the three NPAs under tight watch owing to the possibility that they can be assassinated by their former comrades.

“We shall facilitate their rehabilitation by helping them link up with proper government agencies that can help them return to their families and start life all over again,” Vinluan said.

Vinluan said the three men had confessed to their having accompanied, as lookouts, NPA ordnance experts in perpetrating more than a dozen roadside bombings in North Cotabato in recent months.