By Dominique Gabriel G. Bañaga

Ten more members of the New People’s Army (NPA) have surrendered to government forces in Negros.

Captain Dorcesimo Cuyag, Jr., Civil Military Operations Officer of the Philippine Army’s 62nd Infantry Battalion, said the 10 NPA members surrendered from December 20 to 22.

All of them were former members of the NPA’s Central Negros Front 1.

According to Cuyag, some of the surrenderers were able to listen to the Army’s radio program and learned that the government is willing to help them.

“At first, there were only two of them, and when the six others knew that they had been treated well, they followed suit. Then the next day, two more surrendered,” Cuyag said.

This is the third series of surrenders recorded this month, following the earlier surrenders in Negros Occidental’s Silay City and Hinoba-an town.

Meanwhile, according to the now former insurgents, they decided to leave the movement due to exhaustion and hunger brought by the incessant pursuit by government forces.

They also slammed the NPA’s ideology as “pointless,” and surrendered their firearms, which included an M16 assault rifle, a Colt M203 Grenade Launcher, and a .45 caliber pistol in a ceremony held in Negros Oriental’s Guihulngan City last Monday, December 26.

The former insurgents are also expected to receive cash rewards for also yielding their firearms.

One of the surrendered, whom Watchmen Daily Journal has decided his name to withheld, said he and his son had served the NPA for 38 years.

They are expected to receive aid from the government through the Enhanced Comprehensive Local Integration Program.

The Army expects that more NPA members in Negros will surrender in the coming weeks and months after they suffered major setbacks following the deaths of their two high-ranking leaders, and the recent passing of Communist Party of the Philippines founder Jose Maria “Joma” Sison./DGB, WDJ