Ranking NPA leader captured in Quezon province

(Updated 9:35 a.m.) Security forces arrested a ranking leader of the communist New People’s Army and an associate in Lucena City on Tuesday as government troops resumed offensive operations against the insurgents after the 18-day holiday truce. Army chief Lt. Gen. Arturo Ortiz said the NPA leader, Tirso Alcantara, alias Ka Bart, the commander of the Regional Operational Command of the Southern Tagalog Regional Party Committee, was wounded in his buttocks after he was shot by the arresting team as he tried to draw a pistol. Ortiz said Alcantara was taken to the military’s Southern Luzon Command Hospital in the city. Early Wednesday morning, Alcantara was brought to another military hospital inside the Army headquarters in Fort Bonifacio in Taguig. Ortiz said Alcantra once acted as spokesman of the Melito Glor Command and the Communist Party of the Philippines when Gregorio "Ka Roger" Rosal suffered a stroke. "But his being a [rebel] spokesman didn't last long because he preferred to have a military position. He can be considered one of the legends of the NPA," Ortiz told GMANews.TV. Companion Ortiz identified Alcantara’s companion who was also arrested as Apolonio Cuarto, alias Polly. Cuarto was turned over to the custody of the Quezon provincial police. Ortiz said elements of the 201st Brigade, 1st Special Forces Battalion and the Quezon provincial police nabbed the two around 8:30 p.m Tuesday along a road in the village of Ibabang Iyam on the strength of 23 warrants of arrest for murder. Recovered from them were one cal. 45 pistol with two magazines loaded with 14 rounds of ammunition, two hand grenades, nine pieces of blasting caps, and approximately five meters of detonating cord. The Armed Forces resumed its military operations on Tuesday after its forces and the communists observed a 18-day Christmas and New Year’s truce – the longest ceasefire the two sides effected for the past 10 years. Early Tuesday, a suspected NPA rebel was killed following a clash in Samar province, the first reported encounter between government and communist forces after the holiday truce. The ceasefire between the government and communist rebels, which began December 16, is the longest in 10 years. It was meant to be part of confidence-building measures for the upcoming informal peace talks in Norway this month and resumption of formal negotiations next month. — LBG/RSJ, GMANews.TV