Calamba, Laguna—A total of 131 former communist rebels who have surrendered to authorities were welcomed back to the fold of society as they were presented to the public Thursday by Philippine National Police Chief PGen. Archie Francisco F. Gamboa. Gamboa commended the efforts of both the Police Regional Office Calabarzon under the leadership of PBGen. Vicente D Danao Jr. and the AFP Southern Luzon Command under the Joint Force Commander, LtGen. Antonio G Parlade Jr.
The PNP chief also lauded the local government units and other stakeholders “whose efforts to address threats on insurgency and terrorism in the region” helped police fulfill their mandate, Gamboa said.
After the program, the 131 former rebels were given 25 kilos of rice and grocery packs from PRO4A, as presented by Danao.
The former communists, who also surrendered their firearms, include three “Ganap na Kasapi” and 34 “Militia ng Bayan” from “red” areas, the PNP said. Most of them are indigenous people of the Dumagat and Remontado tribes operating in the provinces of Rizal and Quezon.
The other 24 “Ganap na Kasapi” and 70 “Kandidatong Kasapi” were from “white” areas, mostly laborers operating in the province of Laguna. They were identified as former members of the "Pagkakaisa ng Manggagawa sa Timog Katagalugan- Kilusang Mayo Uno (PAMANTIK-KMU).”
PAMANTIK-KMU is a regional labor federation in the Southern Tagalog Region under the Regional Trade Union Bureau, where the General Secretary is a member of Executive Committee of the Southern Tagalog Regional Party Committee (STRPC), known as the largest federation of laborers and the most radical of the communists in the region, police said.
PRO4A and their Armed Forces counterparts had been gaining from the series of both law enforcement and combat operations by advocating peaceful means to end the terroristic acts of the communists, Danao said.
Equipped with Executive Order No. 70 as the Regional Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (RTF-ELCAC), members of PRO4A and AFP Southern Luzon Command had been conducting massive and sustained public information and education campaign on insurgency and counter-insurgency to the communities in Calabarzon region, he added.
“This is for the people to be aware of the CTGs (communist terrorist groups) dual ideology, organizational network, modus operandi, grand design and repercussion of a communist takeover strategies, tactics and techniques,” Danao said.
The “counter-white” area operations as one of the activities under ELCAC aims to persuade individuals who are affiliated with CTGs to surrender and avail of the government's program under E-CLIP, the Enhanced Comprehensive Local Integration Program, “to give them another chance, and to re-integrate them into the mainstream society,” the PNP said.