TACLOBAN CITY – A 17-year-old member of the New People's Army surrendered recently to the military in Eastern Samar.
Brig. Gen. Noel Vestuir, commander of the 802nd Infantry Brigade, lauded the move of the young communist combatant.
Vestuir identified the surrenderer as Marlon Sablawon Hinundayan, alias “Ka Totoy,” a member of the Bugsok Platoon of Sub-Regional Committee Codename Sesame of the Eastern Visayas Regional Party Committee.
He attributed the minor's successful surrender to the Friends Rescued Engagement through their Families (FReE Families) program of the Samar Provincial Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (Samar PTF ELCAC) with the assistance of his father who was also a former rebel.
"We are grateful for the positive response of our Waraynon brothers in working hard to convince their family members who are still active NPA members. We have once again proven that the love of family conquers the hate that the CPP-NPA-NDF sowed in the hearts of their recruits as part of their Agitate-Organize-Mobilize (AOM) concept of radicalizing our people to support their armed struggle," he said.
Hinundayan also revealed the location of an arms cache in Sitio Bagti, Barangay Mabini, Basey, Samar.
Troops recovered a caliber .45 pistol, four homemade shotguns, one upper receiver of M16A1 rifle with bolt carrier assembly, two caliber 5.56mm magazines, one caliber .45 magazine, 17 cartridges for caliber 5.56mm, five cartridges for caliber .45 pistol, eight cartridges for a 12-gauge shotgun, three cartridges of caliber 7.62mm for an AK47 rifle, and one notebook with high-intelligence value.
Vestuir reiterated his call to the remaining NPA members in Samar and Eastern Samar to heed the collective call of their families and their fellow Waraynons to go back to mainstream society and live a normal and decent life away from any danger or harm.