MANILA, 30 September 2004 — A communist guerrilla who wanted to surrender to the Philippine government killed three of his former comrades and wounded three others in order to escape being punished, the military said yesterday.
Renante Perez, who joined the communist New People’s Army (NPA) in March, told the military he was forced to shoot his former comrades in the southern province of Agusan del Sur on Sept. 22 because they suspected he was planning to defect.
Perez said he became disillusioned with the extortion and other crimes of the guerrillas, prompting him to decide to surrender to the government. But the other members of his rebel unit approached him first and told him to surrender his M16 rifle.
Fearing that he would be put to death, Perez instead opened fire, killing his former commander and two other rebels and wounding three other fighters. He then fled into the forest and hid for six days before approaching the military and giving himself up, the military added.
In the southern island of Jolo, a soldier was killed and seven were wounded when an army convoy sent to pursue a kidnapping gang hit a landmine, a general said.
Brig. Gen. Agustin Demaala, head of the army’s joint task force hunting Muslim rebels in Jolo, said five members of the Abu Sayyaf group were captured in an ensuing gun battle in Patikul town.
Security forces also killed a notorious leader of the Pentagon kidnapped gang in another gunbattle in Maguindanao province, the military said yesterday.
Soldiers gunned down Mayangkang Saguile inside his house in Butilen village in Maguindanao’s Datu Odin Sinsuat town late Sunday, but the Southern Command announced his death only yesterday. (Additional input from agencies)
