2 Magdalo men fall in follow-up operations at The Pen

At least two alleged members of the Magdalo group were arrested during follow-up operations following a six-hour standoff at The Manila Peninsula hotel in Makati City late Thursday night. National Police chief Director General Avelino Razon Jr described them as an officer and a noncommissioned officer from the Armed Forces. “Late this evening, there were two Magdalo members who were arrested at The Manila Pen during clearing operations. They were Lieutenant Pontejos and Sergeant Bosi of the Marines. They were hiding in one of the rooms," Razon said. Razon also said there are other persons still at large, some of them armed. But he said so far they have not found any police personnel to have participated in the activity. He said this was indicated in several documents they recovered from the hotel. "This is a well planned activity, there are other components to this activity. We are pursuing other groups that may continue to implement their plans," he said. When asked to describe the contents of the documents, he said they lay out the plan of the group, what they intend to do, who are the personalities who would do it. He said the PNP is now going after four groups but whose personalities were identified only through codenames such as Tirador, Regulasyon, Jojit, Rosales, Gambit and Sniper. "Tinanong namin sa major service commanders kung accounted for ang kanilang personnel at kung di mabilang (We asked the major service commanders if their personnel are accounted for)," he said. Razon also said the group aims to do something on Friday to jibe with a protest action planned by different cause oriented groups in Manila. Meanwhile, he said the PNP's recommendation on the curfew for now is that "we shall only do this for this night only." Razon also declined to comment on reports that Magdalo member Capt. Nicanor Faeldon, who briefly escaped but was recaptured, was missing. He said the police are still identifying the 101 persons arrested at the Peninsula. "We're doing this at Camp Bagong Diwa in Bicutan. We are reviewing video footages early this morning that showed the group of Trillanes. We're trying to identify these personalities that participated in this morning's activities," he said. - GMANews.TV