Mindoro’s top rebel leader nabbed in Lipa

CAMP VICENTE LIM, Laguna – The top most ranking official of the communist New People’s Army (NPA) rebels in Mindoro and two suspected leaders were captured by police and military authorities in Lipa City the other day.

Eduardo Serrano, alias "Ka Eucag" and " Ka Macling," the head of the NPA’s provincial party for Oriental and Occidental Mindoro and a senior member of the executive committee for Southern Tagalog Regional Party Committee, and his two suspected leaders, were nabbed shortly after alighting a Tritran bus along the Balintawak Highway in Lipa City.

Senior Superintendent Victorio Caragan, MIMAROPA (Mindoro, Marinduque, Romblon, Palawan) regional chief for operations, said that Serrano, together with NPA- Southern Tagalog staff members Joy Aguba Mendoza and Rizza Mendoza, tried to evade arrest but was subdued after a brief chase along the highway.

Caragan said that seized from the trio were a caliber .45 pistol, caliber .38 revolver, voluminous subversive documents, compact discs, permit to campaign (PTC) forms, two communist flags and a laptop computer.

As the most senior member of the NPA’s executive committee, Serrano also served as overseer of the whole Mindoro Island. His unit is the headquarters of the Southern Tagalog Regional Party Committee.

Serrano has a long standing warrant of arrest for multiple murder issued by the Regional Trial Court of Bongabong, Oriental Mindoro on Jan. 12, 1990. — Rene Alviar