Mayor Melecio Yap Jr. of Escalante City, Negros Occidental, has assured protection for former New People’s Army rebels facing threats from their former colleagues in the dismantled Northern Negros Front (NNF).
“I will not turn my back on you. The government will continue to extend help and provide ways to shield you from any threat as you continue living in the mainstream of society,” Yap said in his message during a meeting with the former rebels (FRs) on Friday, April 14.
In a report on Friday, the Philippine Army’s 79th Infantry Battalion (79IB) said some 40 FRs met with the mayor together with Lt. Col. J-Jay Javines – 79IB commander, Maj. Wence Alcube – deputy chief of Escalante City Police Station, and lawyer Charo Tupas-Fajardo – legal adviser of Escalante City, at Barangay Old Escalante.
The FRs have been receiving letters from the NNF, “discrediting and threatening them for returning to mainstream society and choosing the path to peace”, the 79IB said.
They expressed their security concerns to the city government, Philippine Army and the Philippine National Police, saying the letters are a form of propaganda targeting not only them, but also their active comrades who would want to surrender.
“We would like to request for a strengthened security and direct communication to counter these threats,” one of the FRs said.
The group thanked the city government, the military and the police for jointly organizing the meeting to assure their safety and to assist them in availing of government programs.
Escalante City has the most number of insurgency-cleared villages in Negros Occidental, totaling at least 14 barangays, which have received funding from the Local Government Support Fund-Support to Barangay Development Program.
On April 6 troops of 79IB engaged the remnants of the NNF in the hinterlands of the neighboring Toboso town, which left a soldier wounded and led them to recover firearms with ammunition, medicine kits, hammocks, rainboots and other personal items, and subversive documents.
The NNF, which was part of the NPA’s Komiteng Rehiyon-Negros, Cebu, Bohol and Siquijor, was declared dismantled by the Armed Forces of the Philippines and the PNP in April 2021.
In the past two years, some of its top leaders have been killed in clashes while some members have surrendered, but others continue to conduct recruitment and recovery efforts in the remote villages of Escalante City, Toboso and Calatrava towns, and in other far-flung areas of northern Negros.*PNA