CPP-NPA secretary-general in Bicol captured

LEGAZPI CITY — Police intelligence agents captured the highest ranking officer of the Bicol Regional Party Committee of the Communist Party of the Philippines-New People’s Army (CPP-NPA) at a checkpoint in San Fernando, Camarines Sur the other day, authorities said.

This developed as suspected communist rebels attacked the cell sites of Globe Telecom in Angeles City and Calumpit, Bulacan, prompting Chief Superintendent Alejandro Lapinid, Central Luzon police director, to place police units across the region on indefinite "red alert."

Chief Superintendent Victor Barbo Boco, Bicol police director, said Edward Calubad, 40, the highest ranking CPP-NPA officer in the region, did not resist arrest when he was accosted in Barangay Planza.

Seized from Calubad were a caliber .45 pistol with six live bullets, four cellular phones, a Compaq laptop computer and communist propaganda materials.

Upon verification, the Intelligence Service of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (ISAFP) confirmed that Calubad is the secretary-general and head of the regional finance staff of the CPP-NPA’s Bicol Regional Party Committee.

Calubad had standing warrants of arrest for attempted homicide in San Lorenzo Ruiz, Camarines Sur, and rebellion in Irosin, Sorsogon.

According to the AFP Civil Relations Service, Calubad has some 100 NPA regulars and 200 party members under his command.

Calubad’s capture came on the heels of the arrest of Monico Cardinal, the ranking CPP-NPA officer in Sorsogon.

Cardinal, together with Elmer Osila, Guerrilla Front 79 commander in Sorsogon, was captured by a joint police-military team last July 20 in Barangay Taisan in Sipocot, Camarines Sur.

Both Cardinal and Osila are members of the Bicol Regional Party Committee under Calubad.

Meanwhile, Lapinid cited reports that eight fully armed men on board a gray van arrived at the Globe Telecom cell site in Barangay Tabun in Angeles City at about 8 p.m. Thursday and identified themselves to the security guard as NPA members.

Failing to open the locked door leading to the equipment, the rebels instead burned the power generator before they fled, Lapinid said.

In Calumpit, Bulacan, NPA guerrillas swooped down on and torched the Globe Telecom cell site located on the town’s boundary with Hagonoy and Macabebe, Pampanga. — With Ding Cervantes and Ric Sapnu