2 more high-ranking NPA leaders nabbed in Makati

GOVERNMENT forces arrested two more “high-ranking” leaders of the New People’s Army (NPA) in a raid in Makati City at dawn yesterday, the military said.

Lt. Col. Jeffrex Molina, spokesman of the Army’s 2nd Infantry Division (ID), named the two as Gavino Panganiban, alias Nori, Momoy, Benson, Sonny, Mando, Teddy and Rato; and Marites David, alias Teacher Lally and Nikki.

Molina said the two were nabbed by troops from the 2nd ID and Southern Police District in Pililia St., Barangay Valenzuela.

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Panganiban was arrested on the strength of arrest warrants for murder and attempted murder issued by a Quezon court.

David was nabbed based on a warrant issued by a Laguna court for violation of Republic Act 10591 or the Comprehensive Law on Firearms and Ammunition.

Molina did not say the specific positions Gavino and David were occupying at the NPA but described them as “high-ranking NPA terrorist leaders.”

Previous reports identified Gavino as a member of the Executive Committee of the Southern Tagalog Regional Party Committee and head of the Regional United Front Bureau of the Communist Party of the Philippines-NPA.

Police earlier described David as a suspected “armorer” of the CPP-NPA Special Partisan Unit.

A March 2021 police raid at her residence in Sta. Rosa, Laguna led to the recovery of war materiel, including seven rifles and handguns. She was not around at the time of the raid.

Molina said the two were placed under the custody of the PNP Criminal Investigation and Detection Group “for documentation and proper legal processing.”

“Their arrest will eventually add to the deteriorating morale in the ranks of the communist terrorist group due to the successive arrest, capture, surrender, and death of their members and leadership these past months,” said Molina.

Their arrest came three days after the arrest of acting communist party chairman Wigberto Villarico in Quezon City for kidnapping with murder.

The 2nd ID initially identified Villarico as secretary of the Southern Tagalog Regional Party Committee and a member of the Political Bureau of the CPP-NPA.

Last Friday, National Security Adviser Eduardo Año said Villarico assumed command as the acting CPP chairman after the death of CPP chairman Benito Tiamzon during a military operation in Samar in August 2022.

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