Army nets 4 NPA rebels tagged in Isabela police station raid

BAYOMBONG, Nueva Vizcaya – Army troops have captured four New People’s Army (NPA) rebels who are also suspects in the daring daylight raid of a police station in an eastern coastal town in Isabela province last year, according to the Army's 502 Infantry Brigade. The four were captured during an encounter with elements of the Army’s Isabela-based 5th Infantry Division last week at the mountain village of Minanga in the logging town of San Mariano, Isabela. They were identified by Colonel Arnulfo Marcos of the 502nd Infantry Brigade as Michael Eraña, aka Poktong, secretary of Isabela’s Central Front Committee of the Communist Party of the Philippines-New People’s Army (CPP-NPA); Junior Soria, aka Manny; Mario Agustin, aka Aki; and Raffy Valencia, aka Butch. The encounter also resulted in the death of an Army trooper, identified as Pfc Pablo Go. The captured NPA suspects have been tagged by the Army as part of a band of about 40 armed men who swooped down on Divilacan town last November 29. The raiding group was allegedly led by a certain Rey Villadorez, aka Harold Magno, tagged by AFP intelligence as “head of the CPP-NPA’s Kilusang Rehiyong Hilagang Luzon." Reports indicated that the said group commandeered a government vehicle, then charged right into the town square before ransacking its police station of at least two M16 rifles, a .45 caliber pistol, a fragmentation grenade, a rifle grenade, bandoliers with ammunitions, two-way radio sets and police uniforms. Senior Superintendent Jimmy Rivera, Isabela police director, had earlier confirmed that on top of various criminal cases, the captured NPA suspects are also facing charges of violation of the election gun ban, robbery in band, and illegal possession of drugs and firearms. Col. Loreto Magundayao, chief of 5th ID civil-military relations, reported that the said cases are now with the regional trial court in Isabela’s capital town of Ilagan. The suspects are now detained at the provincial jail. Meanwhile, the Army’s 5th ID also said that it has intensified its operations against the NPA in neighboring Mt. Province’s Sagada-Bontoc area, and in Balbalan town, Kalinga province, wherein 14 government troopers were slain in a series of encounters since January 27. In the remote Abra town of Tubo, a training camp complete with facilities that could accommodate 100 people was discovered also last week by elements from the Army’s 50th IB.—Floro Taguinod/JV, GMANews.TV