NPA suspect in Guingona ambush arrested

MANILA, Philippines - A member of the New People’s Army (NPA) rebel unit that last April ambushed and nearly killed former Guingona City mayor Ruthie Guingona, wife of former Vice President Teofisto Guingona, was arrested Sunday by a joint Army and police team in Claveria, Misamis Oriental.

Brig. Gen. Ricardo Visayas, commander of the Army’s 4th Infantry Division (4ID), yesterday said Reynaldo Agcopra alias Ka Tarik, a member of the NPA Guerrilla Front 48 of the North Central Mindanao Central Committee, was nabbed by Army and police intelligence agents in Sitio San Roque, Barangay Aposkahoy in Claveria.

Visayas said Agcopra is one of the accused in the ambush of former mayor Guingona, mother of Sen. TG Guingona.

The suspect was arrested by virtue of a warrant of arrest issued by Judge Mirabeaus Undalok, presiding judge of the Regional Trial Court, 10th Judicial Region, Branch 43, where the rebels were charged with double murder and multiple frustrated murder, Visayas said.

Witnesses have identified Agcopra as part of the NPA unit that ambushed Guingona’s convoy that was returning to the city proper from a coronation night in one of the city’s barangays last April.

Mrs. Guingona was hurt in the ambush but two of her bodyguards were killed in the firefight that ensued.

Guingona’s ambush prompted the military to deploy a battalion of Marines in the city to augment the Army and police in pursuing the rebels. – With Cecille Suerte Felipe