Top NPA leader, companion killed in Iloilo raid

By Jennifer P. Rendon

A ranking leader of the New People’s Army and another rebel were killed following a joint police and military operation early evening of Oct. 5 in Lambunao, Iloilo.

Roberto Cabales, who reportedly took over as secretary of the NPA’s Komiteng Rehiyon–Panay and is a resident of Iloilo City, and a certain Mateo Suarez, alias Badong, a resident of Barangay Coto, Lambunao, were killed after they allegedly put up a fight with government forces.

According to police reports, the two slain rebels resisted when police and military operatives served the arrest warrant against Cabales, who went by the aliases Ted, William, and Lloyd, while he was hiding in Coto, a village more than two kilometers from the town proper.

They were rushed to Dr. Ricardo Ladrido Memorial Hospital in Lambunao but did not pull through.

Members of the Iloilo Police Provincial Office–Provincial Intelligence Unit, together with operatives from the Lambunao Municipal Police Station and the Passi City Police Station and soldiers from the 82nd and 61st Infantry Battalions, were to serve the arrest warrants against Cabales for rebellion docketed under Criminal Case Nos. CC-22-1283 and CC-12-1253-06.

Judge Daniel Antonio Gerardo Amular of the 6th Regional Trial Court Branch 21 in Mambusao, Capiz, issued the arrest warrants.

Col. Bayani Razalan, Iloilo police chief, said Cabales’ arrest carried a reward of PHP 3.1 million.

The NPA, the armed wing of the Communist Party of the Philippines, has been waging a decades-long insurgency and is designated a terrorist organization by the Philippine government.