Philippine National Police (PNP) chief General Dionardo Carlos said on Monday that Salome Crisostomo Ujano was arrested on a pending case of rebellion lodged against her while she was allegedly a high-ranking leader of the New People’s Army (NPA) operating in Southern Tagalog.
Policemen in uniform and civilian clothes, her daughter said, arrested the 64-year-old Ujano, at their home in Bulacan on Sunday shortly after her arrival from a morning jog. She was subsequently taken to the Malolos City police station before being brought to Camp Crame.
Carlos said the government has been looking for Ujano since 2012 and she carried a reward of P5 million for her arrest, which was put up by the Department of the Interior and Local Government and the Department of National Defense under “Joint Order on Reward number 14-2012.”
“Let me emphasize that this arrest is, foremost, the result of a lawful implementation of a warrant of arrest issued by judicial authorities, and her affiliation with the CPP-NPA-NDF may have been incidental to the criminal case she is accused of,” Carlos said.
The arrest warrant was issued by Judge Virgilio Alpajora of Regional Trial Court, Branch 59 in Lucena City on June 28, 2006, for the crime of rebellion.
The PNP chief said Ujano’s case stemmed from her alleged involvement in a “series of atrocities” committed in Quezon province in 2005, particularly the ambush of Private First Class Michael Samsun and Corporal Edward Lumawig, “in her capacity as a member of the Executive Committee Secretariat of Southern Tagalog Regional Party Committee [STRPC] of the CPP-NPA-NDF.”
He said police records identified the woman as a member of the Technical Staff under Kilusan sa Larangang Guerilla (KLG) Luzon/Mayon of the STRPC and member of the NPA’s court who allegedly participated in the execution of NPA members suspected to be government spies during the CPP-NPA purge dubbed Operation Missing Link.
Ujano’s family, however, said she is just an activist for the rights of women and children.
Carlos said that Ujano, due to her age, has been provided with the services of a personal nurse who will closely monitor her health condition and safety from potential risks of Covid-19 exposure.