Reds linked to slays of pastor, colonel fall

CITY OF SAN FERNANDO, Pampanga — Five suspected New People’s Army (NPA) leaders believed behind the ambush-killing of an Army colonel in Isabela in 2000 and the abduction-murder of an Aglipayan pastor in Nueva Ecija two years ago have been arrested, the Armed Forces Northern Luzon Command (Nolcom) said.

Lt. Col. Preme Monta, Nolcom spokesman, said four of the arrested rebels were tagged in the kidnap-slaying of Aglipayan pastor Dakila Lopez in May 2001.

Monta said the four were arrested by the Army’s 71st Infantry Battalion, under 1Lt. Virgilio Viterbo, during a raid on their safehouse in Barangay Bonifacio in Cuyapo, Nueva Ecija.

They were identified as Analyn Flores, a member of the Sandatahang Yunit Pampropaganda in Guimba town; and Christopher Arquines, Cecil Anastacio and Alvaro Luciano Lauriano, all members of the SYP-Cuyapo which is under the NPA’s Kilusang Larangan Gerilya 8 codenamed "Delta."

In Isabela, suspected NPA member Lourdes Mabanag was arrested for her alleged participation in the fatal ambush of Col. Josefino Manayao, then the commander of the Army’s 502nd Infantry Battalion, on June 27, 2000.

The skeletal remains of the Aglipayan pastor were found over a month ago near Mt. Williams in Barangay Floresta in San Jose City, Nueva Ecija.

Monta said the four rebel-suspects in Lopez’s kidnap-murder did not resist when soldiers raided their safehouse in Cuyapo. Barangay residents had tipped off the military about their presence in the house.

Monta said the four rebels were also involved in a raid on an Army detachment in Nueva Ecija sometime in March last year.

Brig. Gen. Samuel Bagasin, commander of the 5th Infantry Division, said Mabanag, an officer of the regional medical staff of the Cagayan Valley Regional Committee, was arrested at a bus terminal on the strength of a warrant issued in connection with Manayao’s ambush-killing.

Manayao and his men were ambushed while on their way back to their headquarters from a medical and dental mission in Barangay Linomot in Jones, Isabela.