A self-confessed member of the rebel New People’s Army operating in southern Negros Oriental has voluntarily surrendered to the Philippine Army, joining his brothers and a nephew who had gone ahead of him in the past months.
Junie Boy Dacaldacal, of legal age, married, and a resident of Sitio Calangagay, Barangay Nagbalaye in Sta. Catalina, Negros Oriental, said he surrendered out of his own free will to the 79th Infantry Battalion of the Philippine Army on Monday morning after months of lying low from the underground movement.
Dacaldacal was presented to top ranking Philippine Army and Philippine National Police officials from the Visayas and Region 7 during Tuesday morning’s Regional Joint Peace & Security Coordinating Center conference at Camp Fernandez, Sibulan.
PNP Region 7 director Chief Supt. Prudencio Tom Bañas, Brig. Gen. Romeo Labador, deputy chief of the Central Command in the Visayas, Negros Oriental OIC provincial police director Sr. Supt. Mariano Natuel, Jr. and Col. Allan Martin, 302nd Brigade commander were among those leading the RJPSCC conference.
Lt. Col. Harold Pascua, 79th IB commanding officer, told members of the RJPSCC, that the latest of the Dacaldacal family to surrender has concluded the family’s active participation, much touted among their “rebel” peers, in the NPA.
According to Pascua, the five Dacaldacal brothers and a nephew were popular among the “rebels” and are well known to residents in the areas of Nagbinlod, Nagbalaye, Talalak and Milagrosa, to name a few, that were once affected by the insurgency.
Those who surrendered ahead of Dacaldacal were Jessie, alias Dukol, who Pascua said was the alleged second in command of the NPA’s South East Front and would have already been the commanding officer of its Sentro de Gravidad Patrol; Jessie’s son, Romnick, an assistant squad leader; and Junie, who was physically challenged but nevertheless active in the rebel movement.
Another brother, Diosdado Dacaldacal, alias Aming, and his wife, Jocelyn, were killed in an encounter between NPA rebels and government troops late last month in the hinterlands of Tanjay City.
“All of the Dacaldacal family members reportedly involved in the insurgency are all accounted for, and they are now on our side,” said Pascua.
Dacaldacal, in an interview Tuesday, disclosed that after he had asked permission from the NPA to integrate with his family, he left for Manila to seek employment there.
He returned recently after learning that his siblings had already surrendered and were being taken care of by the Philippine Army and provided livelihood assistance.
While with the NPA, he said he carried an M-16 Armalite rifle with him but handed it over to his peers when he left.
Army authorities are now processing his papers for him to qualify for financial and other livelihood assistance from the provincial and national governments. (PNA/LAP/JFP)
