NPA leader captured in QC

MANILA, Philippines -  Government troops arrested yesterday the highest-ranking leader of the New People’s Army (NPA), the Communist Party of the Philippines’ (CPP) armed wing, in Quezon City.

Benjamin Mendoza, 61, and three other suspected insurgents were caught outside their hideout along Aurora Boulevard in Quezon City, Southern Luzon Command spokesman Col. Generoso Bolina said.

Mendoza – who goes by the aliases Ka Lorens, Ka Kenji and Ka Dave – is the secretary of the Southern Tagalog Regional Party Committee (STRPC) and a member of the CPP’s central committee, Bolina said.

He said Mendoza underwent commando, heavy weapons, bombmaking and sniper training in Libya from 1981 to 1982.

Bolina said Mendoza planned several successful raids and ambushes on soldiers and police. In one raid, NPA guerrillas freed nine detained rebels from a jail in Batangas province.

At the time of his arrest, Mendoza was with three others, one of them identified as Josephine Mendoza, alias Ka Luisa, a member of the STRPC’s executive committee. The two others remain unidentified as they refused to answer questions while in detention at the 2nd Infantry Division in Tanay, Rizal.

Mendoza’s arrest is covered by two arrest warrants for rebellion issued by the Lucena, Quezon Regional Trial Court Branch 59, with a corresponding P5.6 million reward.

According to Philippine Army files, Mendoza started his involvement with the CPP-NPA as an active member of youth and student organizations in Manila.

He later joined the CPP and became a full-time member in Southern Tagalog, focusing on expanding CPP-affiliated student organizations in school campuses.

Mendoza, then known as Ka Evan in 1975, led the Samahan Demokratiko Kabataan in the National Capital Region. Five years later, he was named the commanding officer of the Crispin Tagamolila Command, in charge of the central committee’s security.

After training in Libya, Mendoza became the commanding officer of the NPA in Oriental Mindoro, with the aliases of Ka Miguel and Ka Dave. Two years later, he was formally designated as STRPC staff.

According to other reports, Mendoza was extensively involved in ridding the NPA’s ranks of government deep penetration agents in Laguna and Quezon.

Reports also state that Mendoza is the brains behind the most successful communist raids: on the Polo municipal hall and Mendez Mining in Naujan, all in Oriental Mindoro; on the 740th Philippine Air Force command group detachment in the National Power Corp. compound in Calaca, Batangas; on the Batangas Provincial Jail, resulting in the rescue of nine NPA rebels; on an Army detachment in Mulanay, Quezon as well as an ambush in Gen. Nakar and Lopez, Quezon and the bombing of a bridge in Del Gallego, Bicol.

Mendoza is a native of La Union and is married to an employee of a rubber shoes firm but is currently living with his “party wife,” Francia, alias Ka Sally.

He has two children and was often seen in Metro Manila before his arrest. – With AP