13 more NPAs surrender in South Cotabato

COTABATO CITY —Thirteen New People’s Army guerillas in Tupi town in South Cotabato, who all supported the outlawed Ansar Khilafa terror, pledged allegiance to the government on Thursday.

They first turned in home-made bombs, fragmentation grenades, three M14 assault rifles, a vintage .30 caliber Browning Automatic Rifle, which is also known as the World War 2 era BAR, two Carbine rifles and an M1 Garand rifle to the Army’s 5th Special Forces Battalion based in Tupi before they renounced their membership with the now apparently moribund NPA.

Major Gen. Antonio Nafarrete, commander of the Army’s 6th Infantry Division, told reporters on Friday that the group agreed to return to the fold of law through the joint intercession of Pablito Escobillo, who is chairman of Barangay Miasong in Tupi, municipal officials and Army Lt. Col. Danny Magaso, commanding officer of the 5th SF Battalion.

The 13 erstwhile rebels also promised South Cotabato Gov. Reynaldo Tamayo, Jr., during a brief dialogue at his office, to help convince their few remaining companions in the NPA’s Far South Mindanao Command to surrender and get reintroduced to mainstream society via the joint reconciliation program for communist insurgents of the 6th ID and the governor.

All of the 13 former NPAs had confirmed to reporters their link with the Ansar Khilafa, a subgroup in the neighboring Sarangani and South Cotabato provinces of the outlawed Dawlah Islamiya, known for fomenting hatred for non-Muslims and tagged in bombings in recent years of business establishments and buses in Central Mindanao after owners had refused to pay "protection money" and provide its members in secluded areas with food and other provisions.

Up to 419 NPAs and 39 Ansar Khilafa terrorists have surrendered to units of the 6th ID in the adjoining South Cotabato, Sarangani and Sultan Kudarat provinces since 2021.