2 CNT leaders surrender to Army in Agusan Norte

Two dismayed members of the Communist New People’s Army Terrorist (CNT) group who previously held the positions of team leaders of the movement voluntarily surrendered recently to the troopers of 23rd Infantry (Masigasig) Battalion (23IB), Philippine Army in separate occasions at the battalion’s headquarters in Jamboree Site, Purok 6, Barangay Alubihid, Buenavista, Agusan del Norte. The two disgruntled By 1Lt. Roel T. Maglalang CNT leaders were identified as alias FREDIE/ ERWEN and JAY-R/ BADOY/BEBS. Alias FREDIE/ERWEN, 39, a team leader of Squad Dos, Sentro de Grabidad (SDG) CAOCAO, Guerrilla Front (GF) 4A of the North Central Mindanao Committee (NCMRC) and a resident of Purok Lumbia, Barangay Poblacion, Carmen, Agusan del Norte while alias JAY-R/BADOY/ BEBS, 24, is also the team leader of Squad Dos, SDG CAOCAO, GF-4A,

NCMRC who is a resident of Purok 8, Barangay Lower Olave, Buenavista, Agusan del Norte. Alias FREDIE/ERWEN turned over to the 23rd IB one MK-2 fragmentation hand grenade. Alias FREDIE/ERWEN narrated the difficult experiences he had while inside the movement that pushed him to abandon the terrorist group. Lt. Col. Julius Cesar C. Paulo, the Acting Commander of 23IB, said the battalion is always open to welcome and

help every member of the CNT group who wishes to live normally and peacefully. “More CNT members are now coming back to the folds of the government because they never understood the kind of life they had inside the said movement,” Paulo said. He also expressed gladness to the decision made by the two CNT team leaders, saying that the armed movement will never help them but instead, pull them down to miserable lives. “With a strong belief,

they joined the armed group believing that they will be given better lives but in contrast, they were only being enslaved by their leaders and they are forced to follow orders without having any repay to their prostration,” Paulo said. He added that inside the 51 years of CNT existence, the Filipino people have not seen a single member of the group who testified that they now live a luxurious and comfortable life after joining the communist movement.(CMO Officer, 23IB, 4ID, PA/PIA Agusan del Norte)