AROUND 266 New People's Army (NPA) rebels, majority from its units in Eastern Mindanao, have returned to the fold of the law for the first three months this year.
Armed Forces of the Philippines public affairs office chief Col. Jorry Baclor said 114 were from Eastern Mindanao, 58 from Western Mindanao, 37 from Southern Luzon, 36 in the Visayas, 20 in Northern Luzon and one from Palawan.
Baclor said the most recent was the surrender of Maximo Catarata, Secretary of Guerilla Front 3 in Davao del Norte on March 31, leading to the dismantling of the NPA unit.
Authorities also recorded 37 NPA members killed and 29 apprehended in operations nationwide for the same period.
Among the most wanted rebels who died in a firefight was Menardo Villanueva in Barangay Libudon, Mabini, Davao de Oro on January 12.
Villanueva is the commander of the NPA's national operations command and a long-time secretary of the National Democratic Front (NDF) Southern Mindanao Regional Committee.
He also served as head of the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) Mindanao Commission and as Political Bureau Chief of the CPP's central committee.
Government troops also reduced the NPA's firepower with the seizure and surrender of 492 high-powered and low-powered firearms and 148 anti-personnel mines that the International Humanitarian Law strictly prohibits.
The military's operations, getting information from concerned citizens and former NPA rebels, resulted in the discovery of 66 communist terrorist encampments, mostly in Eastern Mindanao and the Visayas.
The military has attributed the gains against the communist terrorists to the support of communities and local government units through the National Task Force on Ending Local Communist Armed Conflict.
The CPP-NPA is listed as a terrorist organization by the United States, the European Union, the United Kingdom, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and the Philippines.
The NDF has been formally designated as a terrorist organization by the Anti-Terrorism Council on June 23, 2021, citing it as “an integral and inseparable part” of the CPP-NPA created in April 1973. (Priam Nepomuceno)
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