Nueva Ecija solon, mayor gave arms to NPA, says captured reb

CAMP MELCHOR DE LA CRUZ, Gamu, Isabela — A 19-year-old former communist rebel-turned-military "asset" claimed yesterday that a Nueva Ecija congressman and a municipal mayor gave high-powered firearms to the New People’s Army (NPA) last year.

The former rebel, who asked not to be identified for fear of reprisal from his former comrades, said the solon "donated" a number of high-powered firearms to their group last year.

The Nueva Ecija mayor, on the other hand, gave the NPA at least three M-16 Armalite rifles, he told reporters.

His NPA unit, he recalled, collected the firearms from one of the residences of the two officials in Nueva Ecija. He, however, admitted that he was not part of the group who took the "donation."

He said he only learned about the firearms when their unit leader, whom he identified as Ka Marco, gathered them for their regular meeting in a remote village in Carranglan, Nueva Ecija.

He recalled that they were 30 NPA members present in that meeting.

Their unit, he said, was divided into three to 10 combatants per group, all under the NPA’s Arcadio Peralta Command.

The NPA unit, he said, operated in the boundary of Nueva Ecija and Nueva Vizcaya.

He said he and his comrades in the unit were among the 50 NPA rebels who staged a broad daylight assault on Santa Fe town in Nueva Vizcaya more than a year ago, where they ransacked and occupied the town hall for nearly two hours. A police sergeant was killed in the attack.

The M-16 Armalite rifle issued to him during his stay in the underground movement, he said, was one of the "donated" firearms.

The former rebel, a native of San Jose City, also in Nueva Ecija, said he joined the NPA on Jan. 18, 2000 because of extreme poverty.

However, he became frustrated, he said, over the "inhumane" treatment and corruption of their leaders, prompting him to escape from their mountain lair on Aug. 5 last year.

Many of his comrades, who he said were as young as 15 years old, wanted to surrender but that their leaders threatened to liquidate them and their families if they would abandon the movement.

The former rebel, an unschooled former onion gardener, said he and his comrades had engaged in extortion and robberies along the Nueva Ecija-Nueva Vizcaya stretch of the national highway.

He and two companions were captured by elements of the Army’s 54th Infantry Battalion in Aritao, Nueva Vizcaya early this year.

He and six other former NPA guerrillas from different areas in Northern Luzon were presented to Army chief Lt. Gen. Jaime de los Santos here yesterday.

Because of his "cooperation" with the Army, Lt. Col. Felix Calimag of the 54th IB said they will work for the former rebel’s inclusion in the government’s amnesty program.