By Francis T. Wakefield
Tired of being on the run from the military’s relentless offensives, eight New People’s Army (NPA) members yielded to government troops in Sultan Kudarat last Friday.
Reports said the eight insurgents decided to return to the fold of the law in order to have a normal and peaceful life.
One of them was Romeo Dongco, alias Taiwan, 29, who was among the tribal members who seized a large portion of a coffee plantation owned by Consunji family in September 2017.
Dongco explained that they seized the land to reclaim ownership of their ancestral land.
His neighbor and fellow Yunit Milisya member Jun Okom also surrendered. He said they were being supported by the NPA group Platoon Arabo.
Okom confirmed Dongco’s revelation about the coffee plantation takeover, saying that Platoon Arabo’s “Ka Yoyo deployed his armed followers behind us.”
Dongco and Okom were joined by relatives Nasio Dungco and Binta Ocom in surrendering to authorities.
The others who surrendered were Batoy Tayak, 49; Goong Tugi, 47; Justin Tugi, 21; and a 16-year-old child warrior. They were members of defunct Platoon Cloudphone.
Three of these surrenderers have executed an affidavit liking a local government official to the NPA.