NPA in Mindanao continues to lose mass support: EastMinCom

UNDERGROUND Mass Organizations under the jurisdiction of the Eastern Mindanao Command have already disbanded after most of their members have already withdrawn support and pledged allegiance to the government.

Lt. Col. Ezra Balagtey, the spokesperson of EastMinCom, said more than 150 members of Unyon ng Mag-uuma sa Agusan del Norte (Uman), an NPA-affiliated group in Barangay Bitan-agan, Butuan City, denounced their support to the NPAs during a dialogue in Barangay Bitan-agan officials, local government unit of Butuan City, and the 23rd Infantry Battalion, led by Lt. Col. Francisco Molina.

Accordingly, Balagtey said Uman recruits farmers who will then be the source of manpower, logistics, and finance for the NPA. He said members are being made to pay dues with a promise to give them the lands that they are tilling.

On July 4, 396 New

People’s Army members and supporters brought with them 11 assorted firearms from the different towns of Surigao del Norte as they surrendered to Lt. Col Allen Tomas, battalion commander of the 30th IB and Malimono town Mayor Wallace Senaca.

The surrenderees are composed of 37 Sangay sa Partido Lokal (SPL) or local party members, 46 Militia ng Bayan (MB), 313 Underground Mass Organization (Ugmo) members.

In the northern towns of North Cotabato, 142 members of Ugmo, 56 of whom are from Kidapawan City, 42 from President Roxas, and 44 from Magpet, surrendered to the 901st Infantry Brigade under Col. Gabriel C. Viray III.

Meanwhile, Lt. Gen. Felimon T. Santos Jr., commander of the Eastern Mindanao Command, said the NPAs rely on these mass organizations for survival.

“The purpose of the communists front organization is to agitate people of false issues against government and then organize them to openly protest and destroy system of governance and create chaos,” Santos said.