COMBINED agents of the Philippine National Police (PNP) and the Armed Forces have launched a massive hunt for remaining members of a New People’s Army (NPA) hit squad said to have been deployed in Metro Manila and Calabarzon region to assassinate government targets, including spokespersons of the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC), officials said on Saturday.

This after PNP chief, General Guillermo Lorenzo T. Eleazar said that three members of the rebel hit squad were killed in an encounter with security troops out to arrest them in their hideout in Sta. Rosa City in Laguna on Friday morning.

“One of their missions is to hit NTF-ELCAC talking heads, However, they were pre-empted,” said National Security Adviser and NTF-ELCAC vice-chairman, Secretary Hermogenes Esperon Jr. although he did not identity who among their spokespersons were being targeted for assassination by the NPA.

According to the top cop, intelligence agents of the PNP Special Action Force headed by Brigadier Gen. Felipe R. Natividad have discovered that the slain gunmen were on a liquidation mission possible in the National Capital Region before they were encountered by troops inside Buena Rosa Subdivision in Bgy. Macabling in Sta. Rosa City 1:20 a.m. Friday.

Eleazar identified the slain suspects as Rommel Rizza alias’ Ka Bernie/Jomar,’ described as the commanding officer of the CPP/NPA’s Southern Tagalog Regional Party Committee’s Regional Special Operations Group-Special Partisan Unit (SPARU); one alias ‘Ka Blue/Billy,’ said to be a supply officer of the group; and one alias ‘Dean,’ described as an NPA intelligence officer.

The PNP chief said that Rizza is the subject of two warrants of arrest for murder and kidnapping issued by Judge Rodolfo Obnamia Jr. of the Mauban, Quezon Regional Trial Court Branch 64.

Members of the PNP-SAF, the AFP intelligence, the Police Regional Office (PRO) 4-A Regional Mobile Force Battalion and the Sta. Rosa City Police Station under Brig. Eliseo DC Cruz and the Regional Intelligence Unit 4-A of the PNP Intelligence Group headed by Big. Gen. Warren F. de Leon were involved in the operation to arrest the suspects inside the Greenhouse Transient in Buena Rosa Subdivision.

However, Eleazar said the suspects opened fire at members of the PNP-SAF entering party prompting the commandos to retaliate killing all three on the spot.

Recovered from the possession of the slain suspects were a caliber 5.56mm Elisco M16- automatic rifle, two cal. .45 pistols and four loaded magazines.

Natividad, a former PRO4-A director, said when he was still the Calabarzon police director, they have already monitored that some areas in the region were being used as ‘staging areas and weapons storage’ by NPA urban hit squads on a mission to attack targets in Metro Manila.

Natividad said the rebel SPARU hit squad was monitored to have deployed several cells in some parts of Cavite, Laguna, Batangas, Rizal and Quezon whose members were particularly out to assassinate government officials, including spokespersons of the NTF-ELCAC and other ‘targets of opportunity.’

The CPP/NPA denied the claim made by Esperon.

AUTHOR PROFILE

Alfred P. Dalizon