NPA leader caught in shopping mall

LEGAZPI CITY — After surviving an encounter four days earlier, the leader of the New People’s Army (NPA) unit operating in the Albay towns of Tiwi and Malinao and Tabaco City fell into the hands of military intelligence agents while he was buying supplies for his men in a shopping mall last weekend.

Lt. Col. Manuel Orduña, commanding officer of the Army’s 65th Infantry Battalion based in Barangay Tula-Tula, Ligao City, said a joint team of the 65th IB, 97th Military Intelligence Company and 91st Reconnaissance Intelligence Team collared Crisanto Ceriolla, alias Ka Russel, of the NPA’s Kilusang Larangan Guerilya Pluto, inside the Liberty Commercial Center in Tabaco City.

Orduña said Ceriolla faces two murder cases in the Tabaco City court.

He said Ceriolla could have used the money his group had extorted from teachers and marginal farmers in far-flung barangays in Tabaco City, Tiwi and Malinao to buy supplies for his unit.

Ceriolla’s unit clashed with soldiers of the 65th IB led by Lt. Edgardo Espalardo in Barangay Oras, Tabaco City last Oct. 18.

The 15-minute firefight left one guerrilla, a certain Neri Sevilla, dead. Soldiers seized an M-16 rifle, two grenades, and a bandolier after the encounter.

Orduña said military intelligence agents had long been tracking down Ceriolla.