Ranking NPA leader in S. Mindanao falls

Combined military and police forces have arrested a ranking leader of the communist New People’s Army (NPA), military authorities said yesterday.

Capt. Emmanuel Garcia, public affairs officer of the Army’s 10th Infantry Division (ID), identified the arrested NPA leader as Mario Cabatlao, alias “Ka Jomar,” secretary of the NPA’s Local Terrorist Front-15, which operates in Davao del Norte province.

Garcia said Cabatlao was arrested at a checkpoint in Barangay Madaum, Tagum City, Davao del Norte by joint elements of the Army’s 3rd Special Forces Battalion, Tabum City police and Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG) operatives.

Cabatlao was arrested based on arrest warrants on charges of multiple murder and attempted murder. He was allegedly involved in many NPA atrocities in the towns of Baganga, Manay, Caraga and Taragona, all in Davao Oriental province.

Seized from his possession were an improvised explosive device and a fragmentation grenade.

Major Gen. Carlos Holganza, commander of the Army’s 10th ID, lauded police and soldiers who made the arrest.

“We take pride in the efforts and patience of our soldiers and policemen who painstakingly took it upon themselves that justice for our people will be served. May this bring warning to all criminals, murderers, kidnappers and bandits like the NPA that the long arm of the law will eventually catch up with you and your crimes will not go unpunished,” Holganza said.

“This is a welcome development as the whole nation celebrates our independence. May all criminals fall in the hands of the authorities so that our people may be free from terrorism and other crimes which these criminals commit against our country,” he added.

Cabatlao is the third NPA leader to fall in the hands of authorities in Southern Mindanao this year.

Meanwhile, government troops encountered a group of communist rebels in Tanay town, Rizal province yesterday morning, killing one of them, a military report said.

According to a military field report, around 6 a.m. yesterday, a platoon from the Army’s 202nd Infantry Brigade (IB) were conducting patrol in an area in Sitio Macaingan, Barangay Laiban, Tanay when they chanced upon some 15 armed NPA guerrillas. This sparked a firefight which lasted for at least an hour before the rebels fled. In the subsequent conduct of “clearing operations” by the Army troops they found the body of a rebel who apparently was killed in the encounter.

Lt. Col. Noel Detoyato, civil military operations officer of the Army’s 16th ID, said the military was still trying to know the slain rebel’s identity. He said the Army troops seized from the dead rebel an M16 rifle and subversive documents.

A soldier identified as Private First Class Michael Angulo was slightly wounded in the clash and was taken to a military hospital in Tanay, Detoyato said.

The night before, military troops also fought with a group of NPA guerrillas in Sitio Tuay, Barangay Wawa, Rodriguez town, Rizal, but no one was killed or hurt in the clash.

The government soldiers, though, reportedly found an M16 rifle, rifle grenades and a .45 caliber pistol at the site of the encounter, which they said could have been left by the fleeing rebels behind.

On Sunday last week, five soldiers belonging to the Army’s 54th IB were wounded in an attack staged by communist guerrillas in a remote Mountain Province village.

Col. Loreto Magundayao, head of the civil-military relations battalion of the Army’s 5th ID based in Isabela province, which has jurisdiction over the 54th IB troops, said on Sunday morning, five of its soldiers were on their way to coordinate a civic action activity when they were ambushed by NPA rebels in Sagada town. He said the soldiers were on board a military truck when they were attacked by some 20 NPA guerrillas.

The military has intensified operations against the NPA when rebels ambushed a military convoy that was escorting election workers and precinct count optical scan machines for use in the May 10 general elections in Tanay two days before the polls.

A soldier was killed in the attack. Gina P. Elorde and PNA, with Ted Boehnert