Manila, April 21 -- With government troops inflicting massive losses to the New People's Army (NPA) group in Toboso town in Negros Occidental over the weekend, a ranking National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed (NTF-ELCAC) official on Tuesday called on all remaining communist insurgents in the region to surrender and return to living peaceful and productive lives with their families.

"To those who remain in the armed struggle, we say this: the path you are on leads nowhere but loss. The organization you serve will not protect you. It will use you, and when the time comes, abandon you. The long arm of the law will reach you-it always does," NTF-ELCAC executive director Undersecretary Ernesto Torres Jr. said in a message to reporte...