9ID enlists former NPA rebel

CAMP ELIAS ANGELES, Pili, Camarines Sur, Dec 17 -- From enemy to protector of the state.

Lamberto “Nonoy” Niebla, a former NPA rebel, took his oath Friday, Dec. 14, as a new member of the 9th Infantry (Spear) Division, the organization he fought against for almost ten years.

Now Private Lamberto Niebla joins 94 young men as new soldiers of the 9th ID of the Philippine Army as the Candidate Soldier Course class 300-12 formally ends in a simple graduation ceremony Friday morning.

The five month rigid started convened last July 18, 2012.

Private Niebla was a former active member of the New People’s Army (NPA) operating in the island province of Catanduanes. He was 16 years old when he joined the NPA, trained by the rebel group to become a speaker, influencer and recruiter for the NPA before he voluntarily surrendered to the 83rd Infantry Battalion of the 9th ID.

“I was made to believe about the barbaric acts of the soldiers,” Niebla said. “They are really very good in giving beautiful and inspiring messages, I was young then, and I was easily influenced.”

Niebla said that his views about the soldiers changed when he met and befriended a soldier.

“The soldiers are not the violent people I was made to believe,” he said.

Now as a newly enlisted Private of the 9th ID, Niebla wants to help those others who were misled like him before.

“I want to help in acountering the recruitment of the rebels of students and young teenagers,” Niebla said. He also wants be an example for those who are still in the rebel organization that there is still hope of a better life if they join the mainstream of the society. MAL/Maj. AGuzman-9ID-DPAO-PA/PIA5)