Two full-time New People’s Army (NPA) rebels, including a female combatant, have decided to take the path of peace after voluntarily yielding to Army troopers in Arakan town of this province, a military official here reported Monday. In a statement, Lt. Colonel Jose C Regonay Jr, commander of the Army’s 72nd Infantry Battalion (IB), said the two NPA rebels under Guerilla Front 57 of the Southern Mindanao Regional Committee voluntarily gave up on January 1, expressing new year hopes for a new life in the mainstream society. Regonay identified them as “alias Kim,” a 22-year-old female resident of Lumbayan, Barangay
Some people under quarantine have paid hotel personnel or escaped through fire exits, breaching the health protocols set by the government, Interior Secretary Eduardo Año bared on Monday. Año said he received reports that family members and relatives were the ones pressuring people under quarantine. “Napre-pressure din sila na gumawa ng paraan so nagbabayad sila minsan sa personnel ng hotel o kaya tumatakas through fire exit… Meron. Totoo ‘yan (They are being pressured to skip quarantine so there are times when they bribe hotel personnel or escape through the fire exit… It’s happening),” he said in a radio interview. Año
Abra Governor Maria Jocelyn Bernos on Monday announced on her official Facebook page that the province would reimplement strict border and entry protocols as a precaution against the possible entry of the Omicron variant of the coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19). This, as the Department of Health (DOH) in Cordillera reported that the province remains to have zero active cases of the viral infection. “We will again be strict in our entry protocols starting tomorrow. The S-PaSS (Safe, Swift and Smart Passage) system for all incoming individuals (residents and non-residents; APOR (authorized persons outside the residence) or non-APOR; vaccinated or non-vaccinated,”
Two Abu Sayyaf Group (ASG) bandits have surrendered amid the implementation of the Army’s Mass Base Operations (MBO) and Community Support Programs (CSP) in Barangay Upper Sinumaan in Talipao, Sulu, military officials announced Monday. Brig. Gen. Eugenio Boquio, 1101st Infantry Brigade commander, received the two ASG surrenderers, Sibakkal Salahuddin alias Tuan Mawang, 66; and Isbain Sakilan, 49, who yielded on New Year’s Day in Sitio Timpuad, Upper Sinumaan. Boquio said the two surrenderers revealed during the initial debriefing that they joined the ASG to seek refuge from “rido” (family feud) sometime in 2000. “They were active combatants for a year
The woman considered to be the world’s oldest living person turned 119 on Sunday. Tanaka Kane was recognized by the Guinness World Records as the world’s oldest living person in 2019, when she was 116 years old. Residing at a care facility in Fukuoka, southwestern Japan, Tanaka reportedly communicates with staff through her facial expressions and enjoys solving number puzzles, eating chocolate, and drinking soda. Born on Jan. 2, 1903 as the seventh of nine siblings and married at the age of 19, she sent her husband and son to the front in the Second Sino-Japanese War in 1937. Tanaka
