2 NPA leaders in northern Luzon surrender

GAMU, Philippines – Three New People’s Army rebels, including two leaders, have surrendered over the weekend to the military in the northern Philippines, officials said Tuesday. The three rebels, who also turned over their M-16 Armalite rifles to the Army, were identified by Col. Remegio de Vera, chief of the 501st Infantry Brigade (IB), as Lucio Biddung of Pinukpuk, Kalinga; Sidog Baydon of Tinglayan, Kalinga; and Danilo Balonsat alias Ka Primo of Tuao, Cagayan. De Vera said said Baydon had been operating as a guerrilla leader in the Abra and Kalinga fronts while Balonsat covered parts of Cagayan and Kalinga. He said the trio surrendered at Camp Melchor dela Cruz, the Army’s 5th Infantry Division (ID) headquarters in Gamu, Isabela. Major Gen. Nestor Ochoa, 5th (ID) commanding general, said the former rebels whose NPA units are active in the borders of Cordillera and the Ilocos regions are set to receive a financial assistance package of P50,000 each from the government. “This surrender only shows that more rebels are now ready to live a normal life," said Ochoa The military said elements from the Army’s 21st Infantry Battalion are also in hot pursuit against at least 12 communist rebels led by a Ka Diway of the NPA’s Kilusang Larangang Gerilya of the Ilocos-Cordillera Regional Committee. According to Lt. Col. Antonio Lastimado, 21st IB chief, his troops chanced upon Ka Diway’s group on Saturday while in a combat operation in Kalinga’s remote town of Pasil. An M-16 Armalite rifle was recovered by the government troopers after a fierce 10-minute gun battle with the fleeing rebels. Floro Taguinod, GMANews.TV