DAVAO DEL NORTE, Philippines (Mindanao Examiner / 18 Sept) – A communist rebel leader has surrendered to Philippine authorities in the southern province of Compostela Valley, officials said on Tuesday.
Officials said Raymond Subla, of the Southern Mindanao Regional Committee, surrendered to the Army’s 60th Infantry Battalion on Monday in the village of Bugdangan in Laak town. Subla, 22, joined the New People's Army when he was ten years old and officials said his surrender was a big blow to the rebel group.
Subla, a member of the indigenous Lumad tribe, also surrendered an M60 machine gun, an M16 rifle and an anti-tank weapon, including assorted munitions and a claymore mine.
Officials said Subla decided to yield after a successful negotiation with the military.
Army Lt. Col. Perfecto Rimando said the military will help Subla get an amnesty from the government so he could live peacefully with his family.
Manila is offering amnesty to rebels under the so-called Balik Baril program Under the Balik-Baril, which means "Bring a Rifle Improve your Livelihood," the government pays as much as P25, 000 for weapons surrendered by rebels, aside from at least P18,000 in initial aid.
Those who surrender also undergo livelihood training of their choice. The amnesty program aims to convince the rebels to abandon their armed struggle and return to the fold of the law.
The NPA, armed wing of the outlawed Communist Party of the Philippines and the National Democratic Front (CPP-NDF), is fighting the past three decades to topple the government and install a Marxist state in the country.
The United States and the European Union blacklisted the CPP and NPA, including its political wing, the National Democratic Front of the Philippines, on Manila's prodding and froze their assets abroad.
(Merlyn Manos)
