Persistent efforts of the government to reach out to communities, especially those called Geographically Isolated and Disadvantaged Areas, deemed as breeding grounds for recruitment by the long-running Communist insurgency in the country, has paid off.
For a top leader of the New People’s Army here, the government’s relentless efforts to extend relief to hunger-stricken communities was the last straw that compelled him to go back to the fold of law.
“My mother has called me up to say that they have been starving already due to a raging pandemic that resulted in massive unemployment. It broke my heart to hear my mother begging for food as I was helpless on their miserable plight. I think that was the last straw that made me to decide to surrender,” says Boknoy, a 29-year-old ranking leader of the NPA here.
“I received another call from my mother. She told me not to worry anymore as she just received a free food supply from the government through its relief efforts that target the hardest-hit communities. That sent me to tears. I have been fighting the government for its abuses and I treated it as the enemy of the people. The relief efforts of the government has changed everything I thought of it. The so-called enemy is feeding my starving family so they would survive amid famine and come out alive of this pandemic,” says the tearry-eyed Boknoy who served as the Political Guide and Squad Leader of the rebel group here.
Upon persistent pleas of his family, Boknoy decided to surrender to local authorities on September 29, 2021.
He was warmly received by Governor Nelson L. Dayanghirang, Chief of Staff Ednar G. Dayanghirang, 701st Infantry Kagitingan Brigade Commander Col. Oliver C. Maquiling; Davao Oriental Police Provincial Office Provincial Director Police Col. Efren Orlina; and 66th Infantry Kabalikat Battalion Commander Lt. Col.Julius Munar.
During a ceremony, Boknoy disclosed that many of his fellow rebels are already “demortalized after a successive losses.” He also said that civilian communities are now shooing them away from their communities as the rebels’ presence are being blamed for continuing unpeace and worsening poverty in the communities.
Governor Dayanghirang has credited the massive surrender of rebels to the “intensive efforts of the provincial government in localizing President Rodrigo Duterte’s Executive Order 70 or Whole-of-Nation Approach to End Local Communist Armed Conflict.”
The series of activities spearheaded by the Provincial Task Force ELCAC is now gaining grounds, securing the all-important trust of the people for the government. It is being conducted through community dialogues, community healing and reconciliation programs.
Governor Dayanghirang has vowed to strengthen even more the delivery of basic services through his flagship Nagkakaisang Lingkod Bayan ng Davao Oriental- Barangay Outreach Caravan.
Former rebels who went back to the fold of law says the Governor’s flagship program have been the “primary reason” why they surrendered to the government.
A host of benefits were given them upon surrender through Enhanced Comprehensive Local Integration Program or ECLIP for communist surrenderees.
Boknoy will receive P100,000 from the Governor, while the facilitator for his surrender will get P50,000. Local authorities says there are 20 remaining active rebels in the province who are also set to surrender in the coming days. Governor Dayanghirang says he is confident of achieving his goal of an insurgency-free province this year. By Shaye Dacles | Photos by Mark Oliver Alvite
