Commie captured in Zambo ahead of ceasefire

ZAMBOANGA CITY – Police captured a communist rebel in the southern Philippine prot city of Zamboanga a day before the government’s unilateral ceasefire with the New People’s Army begins.

A police photo released to The Zamboanga Post newspaper shows 

captured communist rebel Camilo Bucoy.

Police said Camilo Bucoy, who is facing charges of frustrated murder, was tracked down in his hideout in the village of Curuan after escaping military operations in Zamboanga Sibugay province.

The 57-year old communist is a member of the New People’s Army’s Militia ng Bayan and operated in Zamboanga Peninsula, according to Major Helen Galvez, a regional police spokeswoman.

Galvez described the police operation that resulted in Bucoy’s capture as “intelligence-driven” mounted by members of the Titay Municipal Police Station, Regional Intelligence Unit 9 and Zamboanga City Police Station 2. 

“Camilo Bucoy is a member of Militia ng Bayan under Kumander Garry Pagente of Front Committee 13, Western Mindanao Regional Party Committee operating in the municipalities of Titay and R.T. Lim in Zamboanga Sibugay and municipalities of Gutalac, Labason, Kalawit and Baliguian, all in Zamboanga del Norte,” she said.

Regional police chief Brigadier General Froilan Quidilla praised the operation and lauded the units involved in the capture of Bucoy. He also urged communist rebels to surrender peacefully and take advantage of the government’s peace offer. 

“There is no other way to peace, not through violence; and our government is determined to achieve peace so I urged rebels to yield peacefully and take advantage of the government’s Enhanced Comprehensive Local Integration Program or E-CLIP,” he said.   

E-CLIP is a peace-building and social protection program that provides interventions to former rebels in becoming productive citizens of society. Under the E-CLIP, former rebels or their qualified beneficiaries are entitled to benefits ranging from guaranteed safety and security; monetary and livelihood assistance, among others.

President Rodrigo Duterte declared a unilateral ceasefire with the communist rebel group and the Communist Party of the Philippines and its political wing, the National Democratic Front of the Philippines from March 19 to April 15.

He ordered the police and military not to launch offensives against the rebel group, blamed for the spate of attacks on civilian and government targets across the country. (Zamboanga Post)

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