Cops nab 2 top CPP/NPA leaders in OrMin raid
PHILIPPINE National Police agents on Thursday night captured two top ranking leaders of the Communist Party of the Philippines-New People’s Army in a raid in Puerto Galera, Oriental Mindoro.
Area Police Command-Southern Luzon commander Lieutenant General Rhoderick C. Armamento identified the arrested as Eric Cardenas Baltazar alias ‘Ka Boni/Tito/Ibay/Arnold’ and Nancy Angeles Bautista alias ‘Ka Vati/Idis/Ninay/Sungit/Nessa.
Baltazar is said to be the the vice commanding officer and security officer of the National Tax Implementing Group (NITG) and the National Finance Commission (NFC) chief of the CPP/NPA while Bautista is the deputy secretary of the Komunikasyon Teknikal of the CPP/NPA’s NITF and NFC’s Team Visayas and Central Office Staff.
Armamento said that the two were arrested inside a house in Sitio Uno in Barangay Aninuan in Puerto Galera during a raid by the members of the Oriental Mindoro Provincial Field Unit of the PNP Criminal Investigation and Detection Group, the Police Regional Office 4-B, the Oriental Mindoro Police Provincial Office, the Calapan City SWAT Team, the PNP EOD/K-9 Group and the PNP Directorate for Intelligence.
The PRO4-B head Brigadier Gen. Joel B. Doria fully supported the counter-terror operation from start to finish, he said.
The raiders were armed with a search warrant for violation of Republic Act 10591 or the Comprehensive Firearms and Ammunition Regulations Act of 2013 issued by Judge Maria Cecilia Austria-Chua of the Batangas City Regional Trial Court Branch 2 last August 1.
The arrest also led in the confiscation of one M-16 Colt automatic rifle with defaced serial numbers, an M-16 magazine with 30 live ammunition, one Colt 1911 caliber .45 semi-automatic pistol with a magazine containing seven bullets, two pieces of metal pipe bombs, 600 grams of suspected black powder, a commercial detonating cord measuring about 3.84 meters, two kilograms of suspected ammonium nitrate and CPP/NPA documents.
Also recovered inside the house of the arrested were a laptop computer, five android phones, eight USB flash drives, one USB flash drive attached to a card reader, a hard drive, a memory card, a memory card ready and P327,711 cash.
The seized computer, cellphones and hard and flash drives will be subjected to a thorough technical examination to find out their evidentiary value.
Armamento said police officers wearing the required body worn cameras or alternative recording device in the presence of Bgy. Captain Charito Garcia and ‘kagawad’ Ruben Agbeng participated in the raid.
