A combined team of police and military intelligence agents arrested on Sunday the highest rebel leader in Negros Island, his wife and another rebel in a law-enforcement operation in Laguna.
Brig. Gen. Arnulfo Marcelo Burgos, commander of the Army’s 202nd Brigade, who has operational jurisdiction over the area, identified the three as Frank Fernandez, 71, alias Ago, his wife Cleofe Lagtapon, alias Guia, 66, and Geen-Ann Canedo Perez, 20.
Fernandez is a consultant of the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) in the peace talks with the government that has been permanently scuttled by President Duterte in 2017 through a proclamation order.
Last week, the President also terminated the appointment of the five-man government panel to the national negotiations, which is headed by Labor Secretary Silvestre H. Bello III, saying the peace talks will now be moved in the local level through the military.
At a news briefing on Monday, National Police chief General Oscar D. Albayalde said that recovered from Fernandez and the two others during the operation were a .45 caliber pistol, three magazines for .45 and three hand grenades.
Two sling bags, a blue backpack, rebel document, articles and notes, and three mobile phones were also taken from them.
Albayalde said that Fernandez, a native of Barangay Ilaya, Dumanjug, Cebu City, is the NDFP chairman and spokesman of the communist in Negros, and is also the regional deputy secretary for organization.
He is also known with his aliases as Frank, Tatay, Uloy, Pidong and Andot.
Albayalde said his wife, Lagtapon, who is also known with her alias as Ella, Pidang and Emay, is a native of Negros Occidental and is the NDFP’s regional deputy secretary for communication and education for Negros. She had also served as the group’s regional deputy secretary for finance.
On the other hand, Perez, alias Angie, is a native of Lapu-Lapu City, Cebu, and is the regional communications staff of the communist group in Negros.
“The three were arrested during a service of warrant operation carried out by a composite team from Laguna PPO [Provincial Police Office] and 202nd Brigade, PA [Philippine Army] in Barangay Calumpang, Liliw, Laguna, at 5:16 a.m. yesterday, Sunday,” Albayalde said.
An official statement from the 2nd Infantry Division, however, said the three were arrested in the town of Nagcarlan, also in Laguna, by police and military intelligence agents, and members of the National Intelligence Coordinating Agency.
Burgos said that Fernandez, his wife and Perez were the targets of the servicing of warrants of arrest for various charges, including murder.
“The law enforcement operation was triggered by the information given by one of their NPA [New People’s Army] comrades as to their current location which was subsequently validated by locals from Nagcarlan who became suspicious of their actions,” Burgos said.
Rights group Karapatan said Fernandez and his wife were in Laguna to seek medical treatment as it scored the police and military for hiding the three, which they said, are entitled to assistance and visitations, especially from lawyers.
The military said Fernandez is a former Roman Catholic priest who was enticed by the NPA ideology in the 1980s and became actively involved in the killing of state agents through assassinations, particularly in Guihulngan City, Negros Oriental.
“Father Frank is also allegedly primarily responsible in the ambush that resulted in the death of Guihulngan’s chief of police sometime July 2017, as well as the ambush perpetrated against soldiers early this year,” the 2nd ID said in a news statement.