NPA commander captured in Mindanao

CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY – Soldiers and policemen captured a top communist rebel leader at a checkpoint in Surigao del Sur province in southern Philippines, officials said Monday.

Officials said Renan Cantos was intercepted over the weekend in the village of La Purisima after security forces received intelligence information the 30-year old New People’s Army commander would pass in the area. 

Cantos is facing at least 10 arrest warrants for multiple murders and kidnapping charges against him, according to Brigadier General Joselito Esquivel Jr, the regional police chief, who confirmed the capture of one of the most notorious rebel commander in northern Mindanao.

A police photo shows the arrested NPA leader Renan Cantos. 

He said Cantos was also the former commander of the NPA’s Guerrilla Front 8 under the North Eastern Mindanao Regional Committee.

“The operation that led to his arrest is part of our aggressive and more intensified campaign against insurgency and wanted persons,” said Esquivel.

Esquivel also called on NPA members to stop fighting the government and urged them surrender peacefully, and take advantage of the amnesty program being offered by the Duterte administration.

“The government is offering the Enhanced Comprehensive Local Integration Program (E-CLIP) which provides several benefits like financial assistance and livelihood program to former rebels and militiamen who surrendered to the government,” Esquivel said.

E-CLIP is a peace-building and social protection program that provides interventions to former NPA members and become productive citizens of society. It offers livelihood and financial assistance to all rebels who opted to abandon the armed struggle and surrender peacefully to the government.

Last week, security forces killed Juanita Tacadao, the NPA’s regional logistic head and finance chief, in a firefight in North Cotabato’s Makilala town. Tacadao was also facing a string of criminal charges, mostly murder and robbery cases, in Davao del Sur province. She was slain in the village of Malabuan where security forces tracked down her hideout.

The NPA has been fighting for many decades now in an effort to overthrow the democratic government and install a communist regime. (With a report from Rhoderick Beñez.)

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