Soldiers killed the longest-serving high-ranking officer of the communist rebels operating in the southern part of Mindanao in an encounter in Mabini town of Davao de Oro on Wednesday night, Jan. 5.
He was identified as Menandro Villanueva, alias Bok, who was the secretary of the Southern Mindanao Regional Committee (SMRC).
Maj. Gen. Ernesto Torres, commanding general of the 10th Infantry Division, said that before the death of Villanueva, he was the Secretary of Komisyong Mindanao (KOMMID), Commanding Officer of the NPA’s National Operations Command (NOC), and member of the POLITBURO of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP).
“This is a clear manifestation that the CPP/NPA in the whole Mindanao is losing ground. Mindanao's most wanted terrorist is now finally neutralized. The death of Menandro Villanueva signals that the end of the Communist insurgency in Mindanao is already at hand.” Torres added.
Quoting a report from the 1001st Brigade headed by Brig. Gen. Jesus Durante, the clash erupted in Barangay Libudown based on the report of a local resident about the presence of armed men in the barangay.
Villanueva suffered multiple bulletowounds that resulted in his death.
Durante said that Villanueva was also one of the founding members of the NPA in Mindanao during the 1970s together with Edgar Jopson.
During his student years in Ateneo de Manila, he was an activist under the Kabataang Makabayan (KM) and went underground when Martial Law was declared.
Villanueva reportedly supervised the operations of the CPP/NPA in the whole of Mindanao and directly controlled the operations of the New People’s Army (NPA) as head of the National Operations Command of the NPA.
The death of Villanueva came barely two weeks after soldiers also killed Anna Sandra Reyes alias Kaye, the Secretary of Regional White Area Committee (RWAC), SMRC, in a gun battle.
Torres said they are now focusing their operations against Eric Casilao alias Wally, and his wife May Casilao alias Gab who are both high-ranking members of SMRC.