The New People’s Army (NPA)-Cagayan Valley (Fortunato Camus Command) denied reports of arrests and surrenders of alleged Red fighters and BHB commanders in the region to the Philippine Army and Philippine National Police (PNP) in the first week of May. the regional unit’s political officer Ka Elias Almazan said the personas presented were fake and that staged surrenders are being used to collect bounties and funds for corruption.

In Quirino, the alleged surrenderers on May 5 to the PNP 2nd Quirino Provincial Mobile Force Company included the region’s so-called number one “most wanted,” a “Ka Benson,” a 42-year-old resident of Maddela town. Police said warrants of arrest were issued against him for charges of murder, attempted murder, attempted homicide, and direct assault.

“Ka Benson” was accused of being a platoon leader and intelligence officer of the people’s army in Isabela. Officials also claimed he surrendered a US M1 Cal .30 Carbine rifle, two M-76 rifle grenades, a 25-round magazine, and a bandolier.

Almazan said the person in the photo who “surrendered” the weapons did not even look like the real Benson. He added, “There is no real name, the data are wrong and twisted to weave the lie that Benson is a high-ranking NPA official to raise the reward.”

Meanwhile another alleged “most wanted” BHB fighter was arrested on May 6 in Barangay Sangbay, Nagtipunan. Police said the unnamed individual engaged them in a firefight until he retreated into the barangay and was captured. NPA-Cagayan Valley said also belied this.

In Nueva Vizcaya, police reported having arrested a “Ka Ambo,” 44, claimed being in hiding for 26 years. He is being linked to the NPA ambush in 2000 in Jones, Isabela that killed 502Bde commander Col. Josefino Manayao.

Almazan clarified that the people’s army ambush did result in the deaths of Col. Manayao and 13 others, but the story of the arrest of “Ka Ambo” is false. He added, “What is true is that the PNP will take the reward for the arrest of Ka Ambo.”

The NPA-Cagayan Valley mocked the military and police, saying state forces in Cagayan Valley appear to be running out of targets they can extort money from, resorting to staged surrenders by long-resting and previously arrested and jailed individuals in the same cases. “It’s easy to grab names so the PNP’s income from those who ‘surrender,’ get arrested, and hand over weapons continues,” Almazan said.

The staged surrenders came weeks after the Philippine Army and the National Intelligence Coordinating Agency declared in March that only one armed group remained in the region. They said it now consisted of “eight guerrilla members” under the Party’s Regional Committee in Cagayan Valley operating in the Sierra Madre Mountains in coastal communities of Isabela. Quirino, Nueva Vizcaya, and Cagayan had been declared “insurgency-free” by the Marcos regime in previous years.