4 more Region 13 senior NPA leaders nabbed in Surigao del Sur

COTABATO CITY — Authorities are guarding tightly the detention facility where four long wanted leaders of the New People’s Army, two of them women, are clamped down following their arrest early this week in Lianga, Surigao del Sur.

The Police Regional Office-13 announced the arrest in separate operations by its units of Gretchen Baroro and the relatives Alecia Tejero, Jayson Tejero and Bonnie Tejero only last Thursday to provide civilian informants who led policemen to their hideouts enough time to relocate to safe areas.

The NPA, now tagged by state law enforcement agencies as “communist terrorist group,” is known for attacking hapless villagers and barangay officials who helped the police and military locate members that have pending cases in different courts.

Brig. Gen. Kirby John Kraft, director of PRO-13, said that Baroro and her three companions were cornered by policemen in Lianga town in Surigao del Sur with the help of tipsters, among them former communist insurgents who have returned to the fold of law.

Baroro, the most senior from among the four NPA officials now detained, ranked second in the top ten most wanted persons in Region 13, facing multiple murder, arson, kidnapping and illegal detention cases at the Regional Trial Court Branch 7 in Bayugan City in Agusan del Sur and at the RTC Branch 55 in Trento town in the same province.

Her three companions who are all surnamed Tejero are wanted for criminal cases, including extortion, multiple murder and armed robbery, at the RTC Branch 28 in Lianga, Surigao del Sur.

Kraft said that credit for the arrest of the four communist terrorists has to go to their former companions who have reintegrated to mainstream society and local executives who assisted PRO-12 intelligence personnel locate their hideouts.

Units of PRO-13 had arrested 21 wanted NPA leaders in a series of operations in towns and cities under its jurisdiction in the past 24 months.

More than 50 communist terrorists had also surrendered to PRO-13 during the period through the backdoor intercession of officials of municipal police stations and the provincial police offices under its control.