NPA rebels ambush comrades who surrendered to military in Mindanao

DAVAO CITY – Two communist rebels who surrendered to the military were killed in an ambush staged by their former comrades in southern Philippines, officials said.

Officials said the duo surrendered recently in Compostela Valley’s Montevista town and was being escorted by soldiers and two village officials when New People’s Army (NPA) rebels attacked them and killing them.

“The attacks resulted to the death of two newly surrendered NPA who are members of the Militia ng Bayan in Montevista, Compostela Valley. The NPA terrorists ambushed the surrenderees and the soldiers accompanying them,” Brigadier General Bienvenido Datuin Jr., a military spokesman, said.

“The attack also endangered the lives of a barangay captain and a councillor who assisted the two former rebels. We believe that their former members are in possession of some knowledge that will expose the CPPNPA-NDF,” he added.

Datuin said rebel forces also attacked posts in North Cotabato’s Pigcawayan town and in T’boli in South Cotabato province last week, but there were no reports of casualties on both sides, although soldiers recovered an automatic rifle left behind by the NPA.

He urged rebels to abandon their armed struggles and return to the fold of the law and live peacefully with their families. “We call on the remaining NPA members to wake up and instead join the mainstream society and work for peace and progress,” Datuin said, but at the same time called on the public to stay vigilant.

“We call on the public to be more vigilant and report to our units on the ground any presence of terrorists and criminals in their communities. The CPPNPA-NDF respects no occasion, religious or not, in their conduct of armed atrocities,” he said, referring to the Communist Party of the Philippines and its political arm, the National Democratic Front of the Philippines.

Just last Saturday, rebel forces raided Davao City – President Rodrigo Duterte’s hometown – in southern Philippines and simultaneously torched heavy equipment used in government infrastructure projects in the villages of Callawa in Buhangin; Fatima in Paquibato, and Dalagdag in Calinan districts. The daring attacks stalled road construction projects in those areas.

There was no report of civilian casualties in the attack and it was unknown why the military and police authorities failed to prevent the raid considering the whole of southern Philippines is under an extended period of martial law.

Presidential daughter and incumbent mayor of Davao City, Sarah Carpio, has strongly condemned the rebel attack and branded the raid as “cowardly” and the NPA as a “terrorist group”.