TACLOBAN CITY — An individual believed to be a member of the New People's Army surrendered to the military and turned over his firearm even as he led government troops to a cache of 18 communist-owned firearms in Samar.
801st Infantry Brigade commander Col. Lenart Lelina said that the military is now processing the benefits that will be given to the rebel identified as Anthony Encinas alias Aljur, who surrendered to the military last 19 November.
Lelina said Encinas will receive benefits that the Armed Forces of the Philippines offer for surrendered firearms and the standard programs intended for former rebels who join mainstream society.
"We will enroll him in the Enhanced Comprehensive Local Integration Program as well as in the Local Social Integration Program," Lelina told Daily Tribune in an interview on Wednesday.
He said the surrender of the communist cadre is a product of the local peace engagements which the military is regularly conducting to encourage the NPA guerillas to lay down their arms and live a peaceful life together with their families.
"We had a dialogue with the family of NPA rebels last November 8 and one of the attendees was Thelma Encinas, the mother of Anthony," Lelina said. "She was the one who convinced his son to surrender."
Encinas, a member of the Bugsok Platoon of Eastern Visayas Regional Party Committee, hiked for 37 hours from their hideout in Basey town to their house in Barangay Antol, a village in Calbiga, Samar last 18 November.
