CAMP DIEGO SILANG, San Fernando City, La Union – The La Union police provincial office headed by Senior Superintendent Angelito Dumangeng scored successful accomplishment on anti-terrorism after a rebel leader identified as Manuel Arpid, alias Ka Manuel, of Tinglayan, Kalinga province surrendered here yesterday.
Dumangeng said Ka Manuel is a political affairs officer of the local communist terrorist group of the New People’s Army operating in the Ilocos and Cordillera regions.
During his surrender, Ka Manuel turned over a M14 Armalite rifle allegedly used by rebel snipers.
Dumangeng said the surrender of Ka Manuel is a result of intensified intelligence monitoring by joint operatives of La Union intelligence operatives, the Regional Intelligence Division, Criminal Investigation and Detection Group, and military units.
“The successful and non-violent means to win over our brothers (in the rebel organization) to rejoin the society’s mainstream, is our yearning for them to have healthier and better life in the future,” Dumangeng said.
He said that this has been the third time for this year that a rebel has return into the folds of law after experiencing the harsh life in the mountainous areas and for realizing that armed struggle will not bring them anywhere.
He said the government has promised that every rebel returnee will receive financial support through the Comprehensive Local Integration Program and other government aid through the Department of Interior Local Government, Department of Social Welfare and Development and the Local Government.
Ka Manuel, for his part, is calling for his comrades to lay down their arms and live normal lives with their families.
“I enter the organization in 1980 and nothing has done that’s why I here now through the encouragement of La Union police,” Ka Manuel said.
He said he wants to recuperate to help his family.
By Dexter A. See
