COTABATO CITY, Philippines — Three more members of the New People’s Army, two of them women trained in fabrication of home-made explosives, yielded to the 37th Infantry Battalion on Saturday, September 28, and pledged allegiance to the government.
Major Gen. Antonio Nafarrete, commander of the Army’s 6th Infantry Division, told reporters on Sunday that Joy Asil Kandason, Marilyn Insam Gansing and their male companion, Tumiguel Kansal Gumpay, returned to the fold of law through the intercession of officials of the 37th IB and the 603rd Infantry Brigade and Mayor Joaquin Concha of Kalamansig town in Sultan Kudarat.
Kandason carried her child when she, Gansing and Gumpay together swore to reform for good after turning in assault rifles, ammunition and improvised explosive devices during a simple surrender rite at the 37th IB’s headquarters in Lebak, a seaside town in Sultan Kudarat.
The ceremony was jointly officiated by Concha, Brig. Gen. Michael Santos, who is commanding officer of the 603rd Infantry Brigade and Lt. Col. Christopherson Capuyan of the 37th IB,
Kandason, Gansing and Gumpay are from interior barangays in nearby Kalamansig and had roamed in the forested hinterland borders of Sultan Kudarat and South Cotabato provinces in recent months to evade armed volunteer community watchmen and soldiers searching for them and their companions.
Concha, who is chairperson of the Kalamansig Municipal Peace and Order Council, and Santos had provided Kandason, Gansing and Gumpay with initial relief provisions they would need in their relocation to safe areas that are far from reach of their few remaining companions, now subject of joint manhunts by the police, the 37th IB, and the local governments in Sultan Kudarat’s adjoining Lebak, Kalamansig and Palimbang towns.
The surrender of Kandason, Gansing and Gumpay brought to 437, the number of NPAs who have voluntarily turned themselves in, since 2022, to different units of 6th ID assigned in Central Mindanao's Cotabato, Sultan Kudarat, Maguindanao del Sur, South Cotabato and Sarangani provinces.