Cordillera rebel surrenders to police

LA TRINIDAD, Benguet — Tired of the hard life as a rebel on the run in northern Luzon’s Cordillera mountains, a member of the New People’s Army surrendered to the office of the Benguet Provincial Police early this week. A belated police report said Leo Tul-ag Ping-at, 27, a native of Basao, Tinglayan, Kalinga, surrendered at about 10 a.m. on Tuesday. Ping-at became the 26th rebel to yield to authorities in the Cordillera region since the Christmas holidays. Ping-at had allegedly been working with the NPA’s Kilusang Larangang Guerilla Marco (KLG-Marco), which operates in the tri-boundaries of Abra, Mt. Province and Ilocos Sur, particularly in Abra’s Otip and Delong valleys, Mt. Province’s Besao and Tadian, Quirino Province and Cervantes in Ilocos Sur. The former rebel surrendered after negotiations, which followed a string of operations conducted by police forces in the Cordilleras. Upon surrendering, he turned over his cal .45 pistol, one magazine, and live ammunition. He is now under the custody of the Benguet PPO’s Intelligence Branch. "We are encouraging our brothers in the mountains to (come back) to society to have a better life," Chief Supt. Villamor Bumanlag, regional director of the Philippine National Police in the Cordillera region, said of Ping-at’s surrender. A number of rebels from many parts of the country surrendered during the holiday truce between government forces and communist insurgents, which lapsed Monday. The Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) on Dec. 27 said the ceasefire had inspired many communist rebels to return to the fold of the law. — Tony Quidangen, DM/RSJ, GMANews.TV