DAVAO CITY (Mindanao Examiner / May 3, 2014) – Philippine authorities are holding a senior communist rebel leader tagged in a spate of attacks in the restive region of Mindanao following his arrest in the southern province of South Cotabato.
Army Captain Alberto Caber, a spokesman for the Eastern Mindanao Command, said Felix Armodia, a regional rebel commander of the New People’s Army, was captured in the village of San Roque in Tampakan town.
He said the army and the police mounted the joint operation that led to Armodia’s capture on Friday afternoon in his hideout and that civilian informers allegedly tipped off the military about his presence in the village.
“Armodia, who uses the aliases Jing and Jade, is currently being interrogated by authorities on his role in many attacks on civilian and police and military targets, including the assaults on plantation farms and construction firms in the southern Philippines,” Caber, who branded the rebel leader as ‘notorious,’ told the regional newspaper Mindanao Examiner.
General Ricardo Rainier Cruz, chief of the Eastern Mindanao Command, praised security forces for Armodia’s capture and told troops to intensify their operations against the NPA, which has been waging a secessionist war for decades now.
“There shall be no let-up of pursuit operations against those responsible in the series of attacks to civilians and civilian properties in Eastern Mindanao. The public is now aware that their role in peace and security in the region is vital to the success of the security operations,” he said.
There was no immediate statement from the NPA about Armodia’s capture. (Mindanao Examiner)
20