5 NPA leaders freed on bail

CAMP OLIVAS, Pampanga — The five New People’s Army (NPA) leaders arrested in Tarlac last Tuesday were ordered released by a judge on P80,000 bail each.

Chief Superintendent Alejandro Lapinid, Central Luzon police director, said Judge Eleonor de Jesus of the Municipal Circuit Trial Court of Sta. Ignacia, Tarlac disregarded the rebellion charges they had filed against the communist leaders and instead charged them with illegal possession of firearms.

A joint police-Army team captured the five — Neptali Santos alias Ka Atong; Carlito Collado, alias Ka Mike; Danny Ladera, Anthony Romero and Evelyn Muñoz — during raid on their safehouse in Barangay Mababanaba, San Jose, Tarlac.

Outnumbered, the rebels did not resist arrest when the police-military team, led by Senior Superintendent Nicanor Bartolome, Tarlac police director, and Col. Samuel Narcise, commander of the Army’s 703rd Infantry Brigade, pounced on them, Lapinid said.

The police are still confirming reports that the rebels’ safehouse belongs to a San Jose official.

The police believe that Muñoz is actually Eugenia Magpantay, head of the Central Luzon Regional Committee of the Communist Party of the Philippines-NPA.

Seized from the suspects were two caliber .38 revolvers, a caliber .45 pistol and a caliber .30 US Carbine.