COTABATO CITY — Two groups, composed of New People’s Army (NPA) guerillas and violent religious extremists, have pledged allegiance to the government in separate rites in two Central Mindanao provinces over the weekend, Army officials announced on Tuesday.
Officials of the Army’s 6th Infantry Division told reporters that the first to yield were 16 combined NPAs and members of the outlawed Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters (BIFF) and the Dawla Islamiya, who agreed to return to the fold of law through the joint efforts of the Army’s 38th Infantry Battalion (IB), led by Lt. Col. Erwin E. Felongco, South Cotabato Gov. Reynaldo S. Tamayo, Jr. and Brig. Gen. Arnold P. Ardiente, director of the Police Regional Office-12.
The BIFF and the Dawlah Islamiya have been tagged in all deadly bombings since 2014 in cities and towns in Region 12 and in the adjoining Maguindanao del Norte, Maguindanao del Sur and Cotabato City in the territory of what is now the Bangsamoro Region.
They also have a reputation for fomenting hatred for non-Muslims, which Islamic theologians detest for being contrary to teachings on promotion of interfaith solidarity and utmost respect for religions.
Mr. Tamayo, chairman of the multi-sector South Cotabato Provincial Peace and Order Council, provided them with initial relief supplies and cash assistance that they can use for expenses in their return to their hometowns.
Three of the NPAs who showed up at the office of Mr. Tamayo confessed to their involvement in the burning of heavy equipment of construction firms in separate arson attacks in different towns in South Cotabato after owners refused to give their commanders “protection money” and supply them with rice and other vital provisions.
In a separate ceremony witnessed by sectoral leaders, eight other NPAs, all from an indigenous highland tribe, also surrendered to the Army’s 37th Infantry Battalion in Barangay Tibpuan in the seaside Lebak town in Sultan Kudarat.
They yielded after more than a week of backchannel dialogues with the battalion commander of the 38th IB, Lt. Col. Christopherson M. Capuyan, and his subordinate-officers, representatives from the municipal governments in Sultan Kudarat’s neighboring Lebak, Kalamansig and Palimbang towns and officials of the Army’s 603rd Infantry Brigade.
Two of the eight NPAs separately told reporters that they decided to come out and surrender to the 37th Infantry Battalion after learning that their companions who have availed of the government’s Enhanced Comprehensive Local Integration Program (E-CLIP) for communist insurgents had been reintroduced to mainstream society.
“They were reunited with their families and now are earning as farmers and fishermen as members of livelihood cooperatives, as drivers of passenger vehicles and as construction workers. We have realized there is nothing good about being members of the New People’s Army, which is a terrorist organization,” One of the eight, Rolando Etaw, said in Filipino. — John Felix M. Unson