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NPA reb with P5M bounty captured

THREE most wanted New People’s Army rebels, one of them the subject of a P5 million bounty on his head have been captured by agents of the Philippine National Police Intelligence Group (PNP-IG) this week, PNP-IG director, Brigadier General Edgar S. Monsalve yesterday told People’s Tonight.

In a report to PNP chief, General Camilo Pancratius P. Cascolan, the official identified the three Junifie Dagale alias “Ka Aya/Tiyang/Chang/Tanya/Habagat/Inang,’’ Muco Lubong alias ‘Ka Nathan/Nonoy/Ikit/Bebot’ and Naparato Baltazar Jr. alias ‘Ka Erwin,’.

“This is part of our stepped-up effort to account for most wanted rebel personalities and other wanted persons in the country thru intelligence-driven operations as ordered by Gen. Cascolan. This is also in support to the directive of President Duterte and the PNP chief to help end local communist armed conflict thru a whole-of-nation approach while going after rebels who are long wanted by the law,” Monsalve said.

Dagale was arrested around 8:30 a.m. Thursday in President Carlos P. Garcia, Bohol by members of the Regional Intelligence Unit (RIU) 11 and RIU7 on the basis of a warrant of arrest for murder issued on April 24, 2017 by Judge Virginia Tehano-Ang of the Tagum City Regional Trial Court Branch 1 in Davao del Norte.

Monsalve said that Dagale is included in the National Most Wanted Person list with a P5 million reward offered for her capture by the Department of Interior and Local Government in 2017.

Described as a member of the CPP/NPA’s Southern Mindanao Regional Party Committee’s Regional Intelligence Bureau, the suspect is now under the custody of the Tagum City police.

Monsalve said that an intelligence packet provided by the RIU 11 triggered the arrest of the suspect. Operatives from the PRO7, the Bohol Police Provincial Office and the Army were also involved in the arrest of the elusive suspect.

On the other hand, Lubong was arrested in an RIU8-led operation in Barangay Campacion in Arteche, Eastern Samar. The suspect is the subject of a warrant of arrest for 15 counts of murder issued on August 28, 2019 by Judge Thelma Bunyi-Medina of the Manila RTC Branch 32 with no bail recommended.

Monsalve said that Lubong is a known NPA member who got involved in a liquidation of suspected government ‘deep penetration agents’ or DPAs in the communist movement in 1985.

The so-called NPA ‘Operation Venereal Disease’ left at least 67 suspected DPAs dead, their bodies buried in a mass grave in Mt. Sapang Dako in Bgy. Kaulisihan in Inopacan, Leyte which was discovered by security forces on August 26, 2006 following information provided by former NPA guerrillas who surrendered to the government.

The suspect was arrested by RIU 8 operatives with the assistance of officers from the Southern Leyte PPO, the Eastern Samar Criminal Investigation and Detection Group, the PNP Special Action Force, the Libangon MPS and the Army’s 78th Infantry Battalion.

Baltazar, the 5th most wanted man in Bicol region where he is known to be a member of the local NPA movement was arrested by members of the RIU 5 in an intelligence-driven operation in Bgy.Rawis in Pio Duran, Albay around 5:30 p.m. last Tuesday.

The suspect was placed under arrest on the strength of a warrant for murder issued on February 25, 1998 by Judge Emmanuel Real of the Ligao, Albay RTC Branch 11 with no bail recommended for his temporary liberty.

Monsalve said his men were assisted by officers from the Police Regional Office 5 Regional Intelligence Division and Regional Mobile Group, the Pio Duran Municipal Police Station and the Philippine Army in arresting the suspect who has been in hiding over the past 22 years.

The suspect is now being held at the Pio Duran MPS lock-up facility.