3 IP leaders, 9 others 'duped' by NPA yield in Sultan Kudarat

From the Philippine News Agency (May 30, 2022): 3 IP leaders, 9 others 'duped' by NPA yield in Sultan Kudarat (By Edwin Fernandez)

Google map of Sultan Kudarat province

Some three indigenous people (IP) leaders and nine of their followers have surrendered to military authorities, claiming they were “duped” into joining the communist rebel movement in Sultan Kudarat province, the military said Monday.

The 12 former New People’s Army (NPA) guerrillas, who are members of the Manobo-Dulangan IP community, decided to leave the rebel group on Sunday afternoon to seek government help.

They also turned over assorted firearms to the government forces.

Their surrender was facilitated by Col. Michael Santos, commander of the Army’s 603rd Infantry Brigade, and Lt. Col. John Paul Baldomar, commanding officer of the 37th Infantry Battalion.

The leaders were identified as Datu Gawa, Datu Ume Digan, and Sultan Tirso Gantangan who personally informed Brig. Gen. Eduardo Gubat, the acting Army’s 6th Infantry Division commander, about their plight when they were recruited to join the NPA.

The surrenderers said they were misled into joining the NPA organization with the promise of protecting them from logging firms damaging their ancestral domains.

“We were used as foot soldiers, we received only lip service,” Datu Digan said in a statement Monday.

Digan vowed to work with the government in putting an end to the NPA movement in the hinterlands of Sultan Kudarat.

Since January this year, more than 80 NPA fighters surrendered to military and police authorities in Central Mindanao.

The Communist Party of the Philippines-NPA is listed as a terrorist organization by the United States, European Union, the United Kingdom, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and the Philippines.

The Anti-Terrorism Council has also formally designated the National Democratic Front as a terrorist organization on June 23, 2021, citing it as “an integral and inseparable part” of the CPP-NPA that was created in April 1973.

https://www.pna.gov.ph/articles/1175433