COTABATO CITY (June 28, 2025) — Preventing the few remaining members of the New People’s Army from roaming in areas under the Army’s 10th Infantry Division is easier now with villagers supporting the effort extensively, military and police officials said.
Major Gen. Allan Hambala, commander of the 10th ID, told reporters on Saturday, June 28, that their units in Regions 10, 11 and 13, had neutralized more than 10 NPAs in the past six months in operations premised on tips by residents, among them members of indigenous communities, about sightings of guerillas in their hinterland domains, enabling soldiers to promptly drive them away after deadly gunfights.
The 10th ID, whose headquarters is in Camp General Manuel Yan in Mawab town in Davao de Oro, has worked out the surrender of more than 400 NPAs since 2023 with the help of local leaders and traditional figureheads of ethnic communities in provinces where its units are deployed.
Hambala said combined personnel of the 25th, 60th and 67th Infantry Battalions had killed a member of the NPA’s self-styled Komisyong Mindanao in an encounter in Barangay Sayon in Santa Josefa, Agusan del Sur last June 19, after villagers reported seeing armed men roaming in the area several hours before.
“To them we are grateful,” Hambala said, referring to the community leaders who led soldiers to the exact location of the NPAs in Barangay Sayon.
Local executives and barangay leaders in Santa Josefa had confirmed to reporters that four NPAs, whom they identified as Nestor, Mario, Anton and Celmo, were wounded in the encounter, seen being carried away by companions as they fled when they ran out of ammunition.
Soldiers involved in the operation found an M16 rifle and improvised explosive devices scattered in the scene of encounter, according to Hambala.
Pursuing soldiers recovered 14 more firearms, including an AK-47 Kalashnikov rifle, and explosives along the escape route of the fleeing guerillas.
Senior officials of units under the Police Regional Office-13 confirmed to reporters on Saturday that more than 20 individuals identified with the NPA, wanted for high-profile criminal cases, were cornered one after another by police teams in remote towns in the region and served with warrants of arrest in law-enforcement operations in the past 24 months that residents and local executives assisted.
Photo show the cadaver of the NPA guerilla who perished in an encounter with soldiers in Barangay Sayon in Santa Josefa. (JFU, Cotabato City)
