75-year-old NPA fighter sumuko

GENERAL SANTOS CITY – Already tired of fighting against the government, a 75-year old New People’s Army combatant surrendered to military authorities in Malapatan, Sarangani over the weekend.

Brig. Gen. Robert Ancan, 1002nd Infantry Brigade commander, said Boy Cabisa Diale, a resident of Barangay Upper Suyan, Malapatan, Sarangani surrendered to 73rd Infantry Battalion officials based in Malapatan town.

Ancan said the NPA surrenderee had also turned in his M-16 Bushmaster Armalite rifle.

Diale said he decided to surrender due to failed promises of the NPA leaders who reneged on their promises to uplift their economic condition.

He said he had been an NPA combatant for the past 50 years and yet his life in the mountain remains impoverished the past decades.

“I’m already old and tired of always on the run from the government forces who had been hunting us down in the mountains,” Diale said.

He said he wanted to start a new peaceful life and avail the government’s peace and reconciliation initiatives.

Captain Garry Dida, 1002nd Civil military officer, said Diale will be turned over to the Sarangani provincial government which will enlist him to the Comprehensive Local Integration Prog (CLIP) wherein he will be given livelihood training and assistance .

More than 200 NPA rebels in Sarangani had surrendered to authorities since 2016 and had availed the livelihood assistance under the CLIP program.