Private army member killed in police raid

MANILA, Philippines - A suspected member of a politician’s private army in Cavite was killed while four policemen who tried to arrest him were wounded in a grenade blast in Trece Martirez City Tuesday night.

Chief Superintendent Rolando Añonuevo, Calabarzon police director, said the killing of Peter Paredes is part of their intensified campaign against private armies and loose firearms in Cavite.

Three companions of Paredes, identified as Policarpio Paredes, Cenon Mores, and Leo Manaig, were arrested in a follow-up operation.

Añonuevo did not identify the politician Paredes and his brothers Emilio and Pio are working for but said they have intelligence reports that the three were keeping a firearms cache in their compound.

Paredes sustained shrapnel wounds in the body and died on the spot.

The four wounded policemen were PO3s Benjamin Espineli and Roderick Amores, and PO1s Rolando Cativo and Estelito Bergado.

Armed with a search warrant issued by Judge Lirio Castigador of the Cavite Regional Trial Court Branch 15, a police team headed by Superintendent Reynaldo Galam, Trece Martires City police chief, swooped down on Paredes’ residence in Barangay de Ocampo at around 7:15 p.m. amid reports that he was keeping a firearms cache there.

During the operation, Paredes appeared from nowhere armed with a grenade. He tried to stop the lawmen from proceeding with the raid until he detached the safety pin of the grenade, which exploded in his possession.

The wounded policemen were rushed to a nearby hospital, Añonuevo said.

Recovered at Paredes’ house were an M-16 Armalite rifle with four loaded magazines, and two grenades. – With Arnell Ozaeta