CIDG files criminal raps vs. insurgents in Aurora
PHILIPPINE National Police Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (PNP-CIDG) Director Brigadier General Ronald O. Lee on Monday announced the filing of criminal charges against 19 CPP/NPA (Communist Party of the Philippines-New People’s Army) leaders and members in Central Luzon involved in the killing of two Army soldiers securing the distribution of government cash aid for poor residents in Aurora province in 2020.
In a report to PNP Chief Gen. Rodolfo S. Azurin Jr., the official said that the CIDG Aurora Provincial Field Unit filed the complaints for violation of the Republic Act (RA) 11479 or the Anti-Terrorism Act of 2020 and RA 9851 or the Philippine Act on Crimes Against International Humanitarian Law, Genocides, and Other Crimes Against Humanity against the accused before the Aurora Provincial Prosecutor’s Office on Thursday.
Slapped with the charges were 19 officers and men of the CPP/NPA’s Komiteng Larangang Gerilya Sierra Madre operating in Aurora and Nueva Ecija provinces especially.
Lee identified those charged as alias “Ka Bullet”, the group’s commanding officer; his vice commander alias “Ka Elis/Olsen/Dodo”; alias “Ka Aura”, also a vice commanding officer of the NPA group; two women, both tagged as secretaries of the rebel unit; one “Ka Bituin/Ren”, said to be their political officer; and alias “Ka Ben/Isaac/Abraham/Peter/Philip/David/Samuel.” \
Also named in the complaint sheet were eight others, one “Ka Lay/Rowena/Lunti/Ashley/Celine”; a certain “Ka Lee”; one “Ka Andy/Olga”; and one “Neptali.”
The PNP-CIDG said that the charges stemmed from an April 2020 incident in which the accused were believed to have attacked Army soldiers conducting a security patrol in Barangay Punglo in Maria Aurora, Aurora, to secure the distribution of cash assistance from the government’s Special Amelioration Program (SAP).
Before the NPA attack, the PNP-CIDG said that the Army’s 91st Infantry Battalion (IB) received information about the presence of armed NPA guerrillas in the area who were planning to steal the cash assistance set to be distributed by the government to beneficiaries from Bgy. Diaat.
The leftist gunmen fired at the patrolling soldiers, killing one trooper on the spot while another died while undergoing treatment in a nearby hospital. Three soldiers were also wounded in the attack.
Lee said that the filing of the criminal charges against the accused is part of their stepped-up legal offensive against the CPP/NPA as ordered by Azurin.
He said that the charges will keep the rebels on the run and will give them the opportunity to arrest them in any part of the country once warrants of arrest had been issued against them by the court.
