4 alleged NPA rebels surrender on Christmas Eve

SULTAN KUDARAT, Philippines — Four alleged members of the New People's Army said to be collecting "protection money" from farmers surrendered to the military on Christmas Eve to be with their families, the military said.

The four NPAs, led by “Ka Carding,” yielded Monday to officers of the Army’s 33rd Infantry Battalion in Barangay Masig in the upland Bagumbayan town in Sultan Kudarat.

Local officials who helped work out the surrender told reporters the four NPAs, whose identities are being kept secret for their safety, bolted from their group to be reunited with their families on Christmas.

The four NPAs belonged to a notorious rebel group collecting taxes from farming communities at gunpoint, the military said.

More than 200 alleged NPAs have surrendered to the 33rd IB in the past 24 months through the efforts of its commanding officer, Lt. Col. Harold Cabunoc, and the local government units in Sultan Kudarat’s Bagumbayan, Isulan, Senator Ninoy Aquino, and Esperanza towns.

The four NPAs who surrendered Sunday also turned in a .30 caliber M1 Garand rifle, a KG9 machine pistol, a 9-mm pistol, and two fragmentation grenades.

Major Gen. Cirilito Sobejana, commander of the Army’s 6th Infantry Division, directed on Saturday the 33rd IB to help the Bagumbayan LGU facilitate the applications of the four NPAs for government rehabilitation support through the Enhanced Comprehensive Local Integration Program.

The Communist Party of the Philippines and the NPA have played down the surrenders, which the military claims has reached thousands, saying the rebels would have been defeated by now if the number of supposed surrenders was accurate.