NPA commander captured

MANILA, Philippines - Security forces captured on Saturday a commander of the New People’s Army who plotted the ambush in Maragusan, Compostela Valley on May 11, which claimed the lives of five people including two soldiers.

Army 10th Infantry Division spokesman Capt. Emmanuel Garcia said elements of the 66th Infantry Battalion and the Philippine National Police Criminal Investigation and Detection Group nabbed Renelo Creita alias “Kumander Jaguar” in a checkpoint in Sto. Tomas town in Davao del Norte.

Garcia said a .45 caliber pistol, an improvised explosive device fashioned as a landmine, a hand grenade and subversive documents were recovered from the rebel leader.

He said Creita, 41, had admitted that he and his 40 followers staged the ambush in Maragusan which targeted an election convoy.

“He (Creita) declined to comment further saying his lawyer will answer the rest of the questions,” Garcia said in a statement.

Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) spokesman Lt. Col. Arnulfo Burgos Jr. said the NPA commander did not resist the authorities who arrested him. He said Creita was walking within the vicinity of the checkpoint when he was spotted.

“We are commending the troops who successfully apprehended the mastermind of the ambush,” Burgos said.

Early this month, Creita’s group attacked a convoy of poll officials who were about to return counting machines to Maragusan town for canvassing. The incident claimed the lives of two Army soldiers, two militiamen, an election officer and a poll watcher.

Garcia said Creita had also admitted to authorities that he and his armed followers committed several other atrocities in Compostela Valley.

These include the killing of a certain Saturnino Maglangit in Nabunturan on April 14 2009, the raid of 1107th Regional Mobile Group detailed to secure Apex mining company in Mabini on May 28, 2009, and the burning of container vans owned by Dole-Stanfilco in Barangay Katipunan, Nabunturan on Nov. 28, 2009 and Aug. 29, 2010.