DAVAO CITY (Mindanao Examiner / July 28, 2013) – A top communist rebel leader in the southern Philippines has been captured in a raid Sunday by security forces in Digos City, officials said.
Officials said Maria Loyda Tuzo Magpatoc, the Front Secretary of the Far South Mindanao Regional Committee of the Communist Party of the Philippines, was tracked down in her hideout following a long intelligence operation.
Magpatoc heads the operations of the New People’s Army in Mindanao.
Army Lt. Gen. Ricardo Rainier Cruz III, head of the military’s Eastern Mindanao Command, said Magpatoc is one of the most wanted rebel leader in the country. “Magpatoc will be accorded with fair trial before the court for the crimes she committed. This is how our justice system works,” Cruz said.
He said Magpatoc is responsible for the series of murders, extortion and kidnappings in Mindanao, mostly in the provinces South Cotabato, Sarangani, Davao del Sur, North Cotabato, Sultan Kudarat, including General Santos City.
Cruz said security forces were armed with several arrest warrants against Magpatoc when soldiers and police commandos swooped down on her hideout.
In an intelligence report passed on by the army to The Manila Times, it said that Magpatoc also was the former Front Secretary of North Eastern Mindanao Regional Committee early on 2000 and her operations covered the areas of Surigao and Agusan provinces.
She is also a member of the Executive Committee of Mindanao Commission, the main party organ of the Communist Party of the Philippines in the region.
Maj. Gen. Ariel Bernardo, commander of the 10th Infantry Division, also praised the arrest of Magpatoc and said her capture was the result not only of the continuous intelligence operations from various law enforcement agencies, but also from intelligence information provided by the communities.
“We urged the rebels and their leaders to surrender peacefully and join us in peace and development efforts instead of fighting a senseless war,” he said.
There was no immediate statement from either the CPP or the NPA which has been fighting for decades for the establishment of a separate state in the country. (Mindanao Examiner)
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