ANTI-INSURGENCY efforts continue to gain ground in Eastern Visayas following the surrender of 107 alleged members of the Communist Party of the Philippines-New People’s Army (CPP-NPA), collectively known as the Communist Terrorist Group (CTG), from August 8, 2022 to February 17, 2023, according to the police regional command based in Palo, Leyte.
“The increasing number of CTG members yielding back to the fold of law indicates that more and more anti-government individuals have finally come to their senses and realized the deceptive intentions of the armed wing,” said Brigadier General Rommel Francisco Marbil, director of Police Regional Office-Eastern Visayas (PRO8).
“We are glad about your surrender because this will mean that our police will be able to focus more on criminalities," added Marbil, after 18 alleged rebels from the different towns in Samar Island also surrendered last week.
Meanwhile, the official lauded the efforts of all police personnel in the region “who have been relentless in the campaign against Insurgency and terrorism and other lawless elements.”
“It is through your dedication and commitment to public safety and orderliness that our brothers and sisters in the armed struggle have realized to come back to our one government...Indeed, their reintegration into the government is the best decision they have made to welcome genuine development for peace and progress,” Marbil said in a statement.
Since the implementation of Executive Order No.70 through the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-Elcac), the police regional command recorded a total of 420 surrenderees, while 94 individuals were arrested and 11 were captured.
Eastern Visayas, particularly the Samar Island, has been identified as one of the strongholds of the CTG, who has been waging a Maoist-inspired guerilla war since the late 1960s. (SunStar Philippines)