2 NPAs nabbed for Balweg slay

CAMP GEN. OSCAR FLORENDO, La Union – Police intelligence agents have arrested in separate raids the second-ranking officer of the New People’s Army (NPA) in the Ilocos region and another regional leader in connection with the 1999 murder of priest-turned-rebel Conrado Balweg.

Senior Superintendent Arturo Lomibao, Ilocos police director, said Avelino Dacanay, alias Ka Mac, and Eduardo Cacayuran, 33, alias Ka Kado, were both arrested in Aringay town this province.

Dacanay is a member of the Communist Party of the Philippines-NPA’s regional executive committee, while Cacayuran is the political officer of the guerrilla zone covering Ilocos Sur and Norte and La Union and the secretary of the CPP’s regional peasant secretariat, according to Lomibao.

"Their arrests are a major setback to the insurgency movement in the region," Lomibao said.

Dacanay was arrested in his house in Barangay Sta. Cecilia last Wednesday, while Cacayuran was collared in Barangay San Antonio on his way to meet a contact in Agoo town last July 7.

The two NPA leaders were nabbed by virtue of warrants of arrest issued by Judge Arturo Buenavista of Bangued, Abra.

Superintendent Samuel Diciano, who headed the arresting team, said Dacanay and Cacayuran were implicated in the killing of Balweg on Dec. 31, 1999 in Malibcong, Abra.

The arresting team was composed of elements of the La Union and regional intelligence units and the National Intelligence and Coordination Agency.