Tip-off leads to arrest of communist rebel in SoCot
Mindanao Peace Process • 05:15 AM Wed Jul 27, 2022
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By:
Edwin O. Fernandez
SEIZED FIREARMS. The firearms seized from alias Bambam, a communist New People’s Army rebel captured during an operation in T’boli, South Cotabato, Monday afternoon (July 25, 2022).
CAMP SIONGCO, Maguindanao – Acting on a tip from civilians, government troops captured a communist rebel and seized two firearms from him during an operation in T’boli, South Cotabato, the Army said Tuesday.
Lt. Col. Zandro Alvez, the Army's 5th Special Forces Battalion commander, said an M16 rifle and a .38-caliber revolver were seized from alias “Bambam,” a member of New Peoples’ Army (NPA) under the Guerilla Front Musa, at his safe house in Barangay Laconon Monday afternoon.
“It was good that civilians are helping the military locate the communist rebels in South Cotabato. It was successful because of the cooperation of our informants,” Alvez said.
Brig. Gen. Pedro Balisi Jr., the Army’s 1st Mechanized Infantry Brigade chief, said the troops are still sustaining the operations against the NPAs in the area.
“Our operations against the NPAs in Sultan Kudarat, South Cotabato, and Sarangani provinces will continue and without let up,” Balisi said.
The Communist Party of the Philippines-NPA is listed as a terrorist organization by the United States, the European Union, the United Kingdom, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and the Philippines.
The National Democratic Front was formally designated as a terrorist organization by the Anti-Terrorism Council on June 23, 2021, citing it as “an integral and inseparable part” of the CPP-NPA created in April 1973. (PNA)