4 NPA rebels who tried to seize trader captured

CAMP OLIVAS, Pampanga — Four suspected New People’s Army (NPA) guerrillas who earlier tried to abduct an Aurora businessman, were captured after a five-minute gunbattle with soldiers in the forest of Barangay Matamil in Dingalan, Aurora Saturday night.

Col. Jovenal Narcise, commander of the Army’s 702nd Infantry Brigade, said the captured rebels admitted to be members of a 28-man NPA unit whose leaders they knew only as Ka Joshua and Ka Jomer.

They said the NPA band was the one which attempted to kidnap Romeo John Roxas II, vice president for operations of the Aurora-based Green Circle Properties Inc., last Wednesday.

In a report to Maj. Gen. Alberto Braganza, commanding general of the 7th Infantry Division, Capt. Rogelio Santos of Company C of the 71st IB identified the captured rebels as Joseph Evangelista, 24, alias Ka Mario; Rodolfo Madaong, 21, alias Ka Berto, and his brother Armando, 23, alias Ka Joven, 23, all from Dingalan; and Mike Ramirez, 24, alias Ka Alex, of Gabaldon, Nueva Ecija.

Narcise said the four rebels, together with 24 comrades, set up a checkpoint in Sitio Amutan in Barangay Cabug, Dingalan last Wednesday in their attempt to kidnap Roxas whom they learned would pass through the area. They flagged down three luxury vehicles but did not find Roxas in any of them.

Seeing the armed men and the occupants of the three vehicles being held, Roxas sped away in his van and ignored the checkpoint. The rebels fired at the van whose rear was riddled with bullets. The businessman was unhurt.

Narcise said Roxas’ company had repeatedly ignored the NPA’s demand for "revolutionary taxes." Green Circle Properties Inc. has a 30,000-hectare logging concession in Aurora and has plans of establishing an economic zone in the Aurora-Quezon area.

Narcise said members of Company C of the 71st IB caught the NPA group by surprise in forested and rugged terrain in Sitio Sallibuawen in Barangay Matamil.