Kidapawan City—A former communist New People’s Army rebel who has earlier surrendered to government forces in North Cotabato led the military to an encampment where war materiel were recovered Tuesday.
Jonaden Sicao, 22, of Magpet, North Cotabato, volunteered to lead Tuesday the troops in locating the items he hid more than a month after his surrender to government troops, according to military officials.
Sicao surrendered to the military on April 4, saying he had lost trust in the communist movement and that he wanted to go back to school.
Lt. Prolen Bonacua, Alpha company commander of 19th Infantry Battalion, said the items, which include one home-made grenade launcher and three Improvised Explosive Devices, were found in an abandoned NPA encampment in Barangay Kinarum, Magpet.
In a related development:
• For the first time, three former rebels of the NPA who recently surrendered confirmed that the civic action program launched by the military had been very effective in the fight against insurgency.
“Keep it up, sustain your so-called Bayanihan civic action program because it is hurting the NPA,” said Ka Jelly in an exclusive interview with the Philippine News Agency in Camp Aguinaldo on Tuesday.
Ka Jelly had been with the NPA for almost two decades before he and two of his comrades decided to surrender last May 18 to Brig. Gen. Alan Arrojado, commanding general of the Joint Task Force of the Armed Forces of the Philippines, which secures Metro Manila.
Arrojado is a veteran military strategist in the AFP’s war on terror in Mindanao, particularly against the Abu Sayyaf in Sulu and Basilan, before he was assigned to his current position.
Ka Jelly, whose testimony was corroborated by his comrades, Ka Kem and Ka Dodong, said they decided to surrender after realizing that they were fighting fellow Filipinos.
During the interview, Ka Jelly said he considered the AFP’s civic action program a success “because it has been benefiting the people down to the grass root level, since the program includes free medical-dental treatment, food, shelter and other civic actions.”
“That is why I urge the AFP to intensify this Bayanihan civic action program because the NPA is having a hard time countering this humanitarian effort,” he said.
“There is no way to put down a good program that benefits the people.”
Sicao admitted his role was to plant and set off IEDs in routes regularly used by government forces.
He declined to answer queries from reporters when asked how many bombing jobs he had carried out in the past.
Last month, the 19th IB also facilitated the mass surrender of 34 NPA rebels, where two high-powered firearms were turned over to the Army in Barangay Manobo, also in Magpet.
Lt. Col. Ehrlich Noel Paraso, the 19th IB acting battalion commander, believed the surrender manifested the rebels’ desire to a new life, away from continuously hiding in the forest and evading government forces.
“The surrender has put the NPA organization in disadvantage in remote Magpet villages, which they usually consider as their strongholds,” Paraso said.