Mayor assures safety of ex-rebels facing threats in north Negros

From the Philippine News Agency (Apr 14, 2023): Mayor assures safety of ex-rebels facing threats in north Negros (By Nanette Guadalquiver)

ASSURED OF PROTECTION. A group of former New People’s Army rebels in Escalante City, Negros Occidental meets with Mayor Melecio Yap Jr. of Escalante City on Wednesday (April 12, 2023) to express their security concerns. According to the Philippine Army’s 79th Infantry Battalion, the FRs have been receiving letters from the NPA’s dismantled Northern Negros Front, “discrediting and threatening them for returning to mainstream society and choosing the path to peace”. (Photo courtesy of 79th Infantry Battalion, Philippine Army)

BACOLOD CITY – Mayor Melecio Yap Jr. of Escalante City, Negros Occidental has assured protection for former rebels (FRs) of the New People’s Army (NPA) facing threats from their former colleagues in the dismantled Northern Negros Front (NNF).

“I will not turn my back on you. The government will continue to extend help and provide ways to shield you from any threat as you continue living in the mainstream of society,” Yap said in his message during a meeting with the FRs on Wednesday afternoon.

In a report on Friday, the Philippine Army’s 79th Infantry Battalion (79IB) said some 40 FRs met with the mayor together with Lt. Col. J-Jay Javines, commander of 79IB; Maj. Wence Alcuber, deputy chief of Escalante City Police Station; and lawyer Charo Tupas-Fajardo, legal adviser of Escalante City, at Barangay Old Escalante.

According to the 79IB, the FRs have been receiving letters from the NNF, “discrediting and threatening them for returning to mainstream society and choosing the path to peace”.

They expressed their security concerns to the city government, Philippine Army and the Philippine National Police, saying the letters are a form of propaganda targeting not only them, but also their active comrades who would want to surrender.

“We would like to request for a strengthened security and direct communication to counter these threats,” one of the FRs said.

The group thanked the city government, the military and the police for jointly organizing the meeting to assure their safety and to assist them in availing of government programs.

Escalante City has the most number of insurgency-cleared villages in Negros Occidental, totaling at least 14 barangays, which have received funding from the Local Government Support Fund-Support to Barangay Development Program.

Last April 6, troops of 79IB engaged the remnants of the NNF in the hinterlands of the neighboring Toboso town, which left a soldier wounded and led them to recover firearms with ammunition, medicine kits, hammocks, rainboots and other personal items, and subversive documents.

The NNF, which was part of the NPA’s Komiteng Rehiyon-Negros, Cebu, Bohol and Siquijor, was declared dismantled by the Armed Forces of the Philippines and the PNP in April 2021.

In the past two years, some of its top leaders have been killed in clashes while some members have surrendered, but others continue to conduct recruitment and recovery efforts in the remote villages of Escalante City, Toboso and Calatrava towns, and in other far-flung areas of northern Negros.

https://www.pna.gov.ph/articles/1199417