Suspected top NPA rebel falls in Agusan despite truce

The Philippine Army's 4th Infantry Division claimed on Friday that a joint Army-police force arrested a top communist leader during checkpoint operations in Agusan del Sur, just a day after the government and the National Democratic Front of the Philippines were supposed to start enforcing an 18-day ceasefire. Maj. Eugenio Julio Osias IV, chief of the 4th Civil Military Operations Battalion, identified the rebel leader as Pedro Codaste alias “Gonyong." The 4th CMO Battalion chief claimed that Codaste is the secretary of a “front committee" of the North Central Mindanao Regional Committee of the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP). Osias said Codaste was arrested at around 11 a.m. on Friday while passing a checkpoint set up by Army troops and police operatives in barangay Fili, Bayugan town, Agusan del Sur. Osias, however, denied the arrest was a violation of the truce. “It’s not a violation. It’s a law enforcement [act]," he explained. “We got him by chance. We were not looking to arrest him. We arrested him not because he is an NPA but because he has a warrant of arrest. By chance, he passed at the checkpoint, maybe because there is a ceasefire. After a check, it was established that he has cases," said Osias. Codaste is considered a fugitive from the law because of standing warrants for his arrest, issued by the Malabalay City Regional Trial Court Branch 8 for charges of double murder and double frustrated murder. Codaste’s four companions were likewise “invited for questioning." They are Eddie Alegre, a suspected NPA rebel, and suspected NPA “civilian contacts" Eliezar Asaraga, Norberto Espina Jr., and Hector Camelotes. There was no immediate reaction from the CPP-NPA or the NDFP on the arrest of Codaste and his four companions. The holiday truce between the government and the NPA, which started on Thursday, requires combatants of both parties to stop offensive operations for the entire duration of the ceasefire period. The CPP, its armed wing NPA, and the underground umbrella group NDFP have been waging armed struggle for four decades now to establish a communist-led state in the Philippines.—JMA/JV, GMANews.TV