Army hunts down UP Cebu graduate

CEBU - Another graduate of the University of the Philippines’ (UP) campus in Cebu was tagged by the Philippine Army in Negros Island as a member of the communist rebel group New People’s Army (NPA).

Captain Ruel Llanes, of the 303rd Infantry Brigade based in Murcia, Negros Occidental, said the 26-year-old Alyssa Sumulong, of Cebu’s Minglanilla town, is being hunted by soldiers after her journal was recovered by the military following a recent clash in San Carlos City.

He said Sumulong studied mathematics in UP Cebu. “Troops of the 79th Infantry Battalion learned about Sumulong’s identity through her journal, which was among the items recovered by the soldiers at the encounter site in Barangay Guadalupe in San Carlos City in Negros Occidental,” Llanes said.

Llanes also said that Sumulong also wrote about her traumatic experiences during her stay with the NPA and showed that sometime in November 2011, she underwent training in the hinterlands of Himamaylan in Negros Occidental.

In 2012, she became a full-time NPA member and was assigned to the hinterland villages of San Carlos City and Canlaon City and Vallehermoso town in Negros Oriental.

Brigadier General Eliezer Losañes, commander of 303rd Infantry Brigade, said they thoroughly examined the recovered documents and these confirmed that Alyssa Sumulong is with the rebel group. He urged young people who have joined the rebel group to surrender to the authorities and avail of the amnesty program of the government.

“Live a normal and peaceful life, and do not be deceived by fake promises of a better future,” Losañes said.