CAMP DOWNES, Ormoc City -- The link between the Communist Party of the Philippines-New People’s Army-National Democratic Front (CPP-NPA-NDF) and the Bayan Muna party-list is more real than apparent in the case of a couple who recently surfaced in the Municipality of Mahaplag, Leyte.

On August 17, the couple – alias Jerry and alias Dalia – walked into the headquarters of the 14th Infantry (Avenger) Battalion, 8th Infantry Division, PA in Barangay Uguis, Mahaplag, Leyte to formally turn themselves in both as former NPA terrorists and as lie-low leaders of the Bayan Muna party-list.

They claimed that in 2004, they voluntarily disappeared from Mahaplag, left their family behind and hid somewhere in Bohol to totally avoid both the CPP-NPA-NDF and the Bayan Muna. But the fear for their safety and the longing for their loved ones forced them to return to Mahaplag recently.

However, they came to realize that the CPP-NPA-NDF would continue to approach and recruit them again either into the armed group or the Bayan Muna, a situation they always wanted to avoid.

In reality, Jerry and Dalia have long wanted to abandon the violent life of communist terrorism. Having seen enough violence including the infamous Inopacan Massacre in their six-year active involvement with the CPP-NPA-NDF from 1986 to 1992, the couple joined sometime in 1993 with a group of some 200 members and supporters of the communist terrorist group (CTG) that yielded to the local officials of Mahaplag.

They were already living a normal life when one Jun Salazar from Inopacan, Leyte, Provincial Coordinator of Bayan Muna, recruited them into the CPP-established party-list in 2001. Salazar designated Jerry as Bayan Muna Municipal Coordinator and tasked the couple to organize the farmers and the workers in the area, and to lead them in strikes and anti-government rallies until they went on lie-low in 2004.

They recalled that Salazar and a certain Dario Tomada, a peasant leader-organizer from Ormoc City, told them to instruct the organized masses to vote for Bayan Muna during the May 2001 party-list election.

The couple could be referring to a certain Felomino Salazar Jr., a resident of Inopacan, who was recently arrested in connection with the criminal charges filed against him in relation to the gruesome CPP-NPA-NDF purging in Mt. Sapangdaku, Barangay Kaulisihan, Inopacan in late ‘80s.

During interview, Jerry admitted he served as a medical officer of Squad 1, 5th District Guerrilla Unit, Front Guerrilla Unit in south Leyte from 1986 to 1992 and later as Bayan Muna - Mahaplag Municipal chairman from 2001 to 2004.

Dalia bared she was the Finance Officer of same Front Guerrilla Unit from 1986 to 1992 and a Bayan Muna organizer in Mahaplag from 2001 to 2004.

Lieutenant Colonel Ernesto R. Dela Rosa Jr., 14IB commander, pointed out that the CPP-NPA-NDF is destroying the family as the basic unit of our society.

“We should not allow the communist terrorist NPA to continue destroying our families and the very culture and tradition of our society. Our government is always open and ready to help anyone who wanted to abandon the violent ways of the CTG and to start a new peaceful life. We are encouraging the few remaining members of the CTG in our area of operation and elsewhere to emulate the example set by the couple Jerry and Dalia of giving prime attention to the welfare and betterment of their family so they and their children can live peacefully and abundantly forever,” he quipped.

For his part, Brigadier General Zosimo A. Oliveros, commander of the 802nd Infantry (Peerless) Brigade, said, “It is part of the CTG doctrine to recruit back former members and those on lie-low status. Hence, their formal surrender is very much welcome as it would afford us the golden opportunity to help them. In the advent of Executive Order No. 70, there is now a mechanism that will ensure their effective reintegration into the mainstream of our society.”

“I welcomed the formal return to the folds of the law of the couple Jerry and Dalia as it would seal their departure from the CTG and prevent their recruitment again either in the armed underground movement or the open revolutionary mass movement. Moreover, the revelations of the couple gave credence to allegations on the link between the terrorist CPP-NPA-NDF and the Bayan Muna,” Oliveros said. (802Bde, 8ID, PA)