AIR Force Chief Pedrito Cadungog on Thursday received at Villamor Air Base 10 rebel returnees from Central Luzon who surrendered to operatives of the Philippine Air Force's (PAF) 710th Special Operations Wing (SPOW) based at Clark Air Base in Pampanga.
The rebel returnees, along with time delay fuses of improvised explosive device, sniper rifles, a caliber .45 pistol, a mini Uzi sub-machine gun, a home-made shotgun, grenades, a red flag with hammer and sickle imprint and several subversive documents, were presented to Cadungog in a simple rites by Colonel Jesus Fajardo, commander of 710 SPOW, after wishing the returnees a fruitful life outside of the rebel movement.
Cadungog, on the other hand, thanked the rebel returnees for seeing the light and for realizing that there is no truth to propaganda used by rebel recruiters to attract rural folks in joining the armed communist rebels. He also ordered top PAF officers present to extend necessary support to the surrenderees.
PAF public information officer Gerardo Zamudio said the rebel returnees came from Nueva Ecija and Pampanga provinces. The six Nueva Ecija surrenderees, he said, are members of the Nueva Ecija provincial party committee while the rest are members of Northwestern Pampanga District Committee, one of the units under the Pampanga Provincial Party Committee.
All those coming from Pampanga are members of the Aeta indigenous community, one of them is the vice commander of the district committee. The rebel returnees cited the ongoing power struggle within the rebel movement, continuing military operations in the area and their prolonged exposure to the elements as the reasons why they finally surrendered to government forces.
The rebel returnees were subjected to two months intensive reorientation and reeducation to make them fit to exist in mainstream society, Zamudio added. He, however, did not identify the rebel returnees for security reasons. (VR/Sunnex)
