2 senior Mindanao NPA officials arrested

COTABATO CITY —Policemen and soldiers arrested two senior leaders of the New People’s Army, wanted for high-profile criminal cases pending in courts, in a joint operation in Davao City on Saturday, December 28.

The Catholic station DXMS in Cotabato City reported on Monday morning, December 30, that Benny Flores Mendoza and Francisco Rotol Sud-ongan are now locked in a detention facility of the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group-11 in San Pedro, Davao City.

Major Gen. Allan Hambala, commander of the Army’s 10th Infantry Division, told reporters in Cotabato City on Monday that operatives of the CIDG-11 and intelligence agents of the Davao City Police Office and 10th ID managed to locate Mendoza and Sud-ongan in Isla Suerte in Barangay 76A in Talomo, Davao City with the help of informants, among them former NPAs who have returned to the fold of law.

Mendoza and Sud-ongan are both senior members of the executive committee of the NPA’s self-styled Southern Mindanao Regional Command, or SMRC, whose leaders are wanted for heinous crimes, including multiple murders and harboring of wanted persons.

Hambala said the warrants for their arrest were issued by the Regional Trial Court Branch 11 and the RTC Branch 56 in Compostela, Davao de Oro.

Personnel of units under PRO-11 and intelligence agents of the 10th ID had earlier arrested, in separate operations in Region 11 in the past four months, the SMRC’s executive committee secretary, Ruel Villanueva Cabales, his deputy, Catherine Apares Guinoo, and their second deputy committee secretary, Porferio Dain Tuna Jr.

The three NPA officials are now being prosecuted for criminal cases filed against them in different courts in Regions 10 and 11.