BY GILBERT P. BAYORAN
Three suspected New People’s Army women cadres and an alleged member of the Special Partisan Unit were separately arrested on Thursday in Calatrava and San Carlos City, Negros Occidental, that also yielded guns and explosives.
Nabbed by the combined forces of the PNP Special Action Force and the 79th Infantry Battalion were identified by Maj. Cenon Pancito, Infantry Division spokesman, as Mary Jane Nombre, who is a courier of the Komiteng Rehiyonal-Negros, Liezel Grace Cortez, a political instructor and intelligence operatives of KR-Negros, and a certain alias Limay/ Digna, platoon medic of the Central Negros Front 1.
Maj. Roberto Indiape, Calatrava police chief, however, said that the three arrested rebels suspects are not cooperating with them in their investigation as they did not divulge their identities, although they recovered identification cards from their possession.
Also recovered during their arrests were an M-14 assault rifle with a magazine containing nine ammunition, three .38 caliber revolvers, four rifle grenades, eight cellular phones, assorted medicines and subversive documents with high intelligence value, according to Indiape.
Prior to their arrests, he added the three rebel suspects were already tailed by authorities.
Despite their non-cooperation, Indiape said that they will be pursuing the filing of charges against them for illegal possession of firearms and explosives.
Col. Gilbert Gorero, spokesman of the Police Regional Office 6, reported yesterday that an alleged NPA hitman he identified as Rodem Berangberang, alias Toto,was also apprehended by police intelligence operatives of PRO 6, assisted by the local police and SAF troopers, in Brgy. Palampas, San Carlos City, also on Thursday.
Berangberang has a pending arrest warrant for murder, which was issued by Judge Reymar Lacaya of Zamboanga del Norte Regional Trial Court, who also denied him bail, Gorero said.*
