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Manila Bulletin devider Philippines devider Top NPA commander, 2 others killed in Antipolo

Top NPA commander, 2 others killed in Antipolo

Published Dec 5, 2019 12:00 am
By Aaron Recuenco Joint police and military operatives killed a top official of the New People’s Army (NPA) operating in Southern Tagalog and two others in a raid in his safehouse in Antipolo City before dawn on Thursday. Maj. Gen. Arnulfo Marcelo Burgos, commanding general of the Army’s 2nd Infantry Division, said that aside from Armando Lazarte, two other communist rebels were also killed. Confiscated items from Armando Lazarte's safehouse in Antipolo (2nd Infantry Jungle Fighter Division / MANILA BULLETIN) Confiscated items from Armando Lazarte's safehouse in Antipolo
(2nd Infantry Jungle Fighter Division / MANILA BULLETIN) Lazarte, according to Burgos, is the secretary of Southern Tagalog Regional Party Committee’s (STRPC) Sub-Regional Military Area 4A. He also served as a concurrent Executive Committee member of STRPC. “This is a decisive blow to the communist terrorists for it will result to leadership vacuum, thus, further pushing them on the brink of collapse thereby fast-tracking our efforts to defeat insurgency and liberate our people from the clutches of terrorism in this part of the country,” said Burgos. The official said the operation started with when security forces were notified by informants from within Lazarte’s group regarding the whereabouts of alias Pat Romano. The tipoff, according to Burgos, was confirmed by some of the locals in the area. Armed with arrest warrants for murder and frustrated murder, joint police and military operatives went to the area in Barangay Cupang’s Sierra Vista Subdivision at around 2 a.m. on Thursday. Lt. Col. Christopher Diaz, Commander of the 80th Infantry Battalion which operates in Rizal Province, said Lazarte and his men opened fire at the arresting officers which triggered the shootout. All the three wounded rebels were taken to the hospital where they were declared dead. Diaz said his men confiscated an M16 rifle, a 9mm pistol, a .45 pistol, two hand grenades, laptops, cellphones and voluminous enemy documents, which he said, are now being processed by Rizal Provincial Police Office’s Scene of the Crime Operation. Lazarte is tagged as a notorious NPA Commander who has led the burning of equipment at the Kaliwa Dam project in Infanta, Quezon early this year and the series of ambushes utilizing land mines against the police in Baras and Antipolo City last 2018. Lazarte was the second high-ranking rebel leader from Southern Tagalog to be neutralized in nine days following the arrest of Jaime Padilla, a Central Committee member, in the posh Cardinal Santos Hospital in San Juan last November 26.
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