BONTOC, Mountain Province – Some fifteen members of the Militia ng Bayan under the Kilusang Larangang Gerilya Marco operating in the different parts of this landlocked province voluntarily surrendered to police and military authorities bringing with them their firearms and some explosives in Natonin and Bauko towns recently.
Joint police and military authorities in the region disclosed that 6 Militia ng Bayan members voluntarily surrendered and turned over 2 Garand rifles, 1 M-16 Armalite rifle, 1 hand grenade, 1 Icom HHR and subversive documents to combined police and military personnel in Natonin town while the 9 others surrendered without firearms to similar personnel in Bagnen Proper and Bagnen Oriente, Bauko town.
Police authorities claimed that the surrender of the Militia ng Bayan members was a result of the community relations activities and dialogues initiated by the mountain Province Police office led by Police Col. Homer Penecilla, Police Regional Office – Cordillera and Military Intelligence and the National Intelligence Coordinating Agency in the Cordillera conducted in the different parts of the province.
The rebel returnees are now in the custody of the Mountain Province Police Office while their surrender documents are being processed for admission in the Enhanced Comprehensive Local Integration Program (ECLIP) of the government through the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG).
Gov. Bonifacio Lacwasan, Jr. lauded the combined efforts of the operating units in facilitating the surrender of the rebels and motivated them to continue existing extra efforts to convince more rebels to go back to the folds of mainstream society where they could become productive citizens of the country.
Further, he commended and welcomed the surrenderees considering that they were abler to wake up to the reality that it will be better for them to come back to the folds of the law instead of having to unnecessarily pursue their wrong ideology at the height of the Luzon-wide enhanced community quarantine and the fight against the dreaded Corona Virus Disease (COVID) 2019.
Lacwasan called on other communist rebels who continue to hide in the mountains of the province to already come down for them to be able to legitimize their cause by being enrolled to the ECLIP for them to become productive citizens of the community.
Mountain Province is one of the provinces in the Cordillera that have communities that are considered to be rebel-infested considering the regular presence of armed rebels that frequent their places en route to other provinces like Abra, Kalinga, Ifugao and some provinces in the Ilocos Region.
Lacwasan said that the local task force on ending local armed conflict will remain aggressive in engaging the rebel-infested communities in the province to ensure the eventual end of armed conflicts in the countryside with the surrender of rebels who want to go back to mainstream society and live a peaceful life instead of hiding from the long arms of the law that could put to risk their lives, especially during potential encounters with government forces doing their anti-insurgency operations among other legitimate operations.
By Hent
