KORONADAL CITY (MindaNews / 18 Mar) – Authorities arrested an alleged ranking leader of the New People’s Army (NPA) while two others surrendered separately in Region 12, a police official said Wednesday.
Brig. Gen. Alfred Corpus identified the arrested NPA leader as Leon Tabafa Tacdoro alias Ka Paeng, 62, chief of the Regional Peasant Bureau of the NPA’s Far South Mindanao Regional Command.
Tacdoro, a resident of Tulunan, North Cotabato, was arrested by a multi-agency law enforcement team in Sitio Kipopo, Barangay Keytodac in Lebak town, Sultan Kudarat province Tuesday morning.
He is facing charges of murder, frustrated murder, kidnapping and robbery.
Seized from his possession were a caliber .
45 pistol, a home-made 12-gauge shotgun, an M-16 magazine and two fragmentation grenades, Maj. Rodney Binoya, Lebak police chief, said.
Corpus said that two other NPA rebels yielded in Barangay Danlag, Tampakan, South Cotabato also Tuesday morning.
They were identified as Argie Angga alias Aldos and Jomard Angal alias Pawpaw, the squad leader and member, respectively, of the Primera Platoon, Guerilla Front 72, Alip Command in Far South Mindanao Region.
The two surrendered a caliber .45 pistol, a caliber 9 mm Ingram and several bullets, Corpus said.
The police official urged active communist rebels to abandon their armed struggle, saying that cash and livelihood assistance would be given to them if they return to the folds of the law. (Bong S. Sarmiento / MindaNews)
