Ranking NPA leader nabbed in Davao City

@pnpdpcr @OtcdsPNP Top NPA leader (ROY ERECRE) nabbed in Davao by combined members of CIDG, PNP local and AFP yesterday.

— CIDGPNP (@CIDG_PIO) May 8, 2014

MANILA (PNA) — Troopers and intelligence units from the Eastern Mindanao Command together with local police have arrested a ranking member of the New People’s Army (NPA) and his “lady friend” during operations in Davao City Wednesday morning.

Capt. Alberto Caber, Eastern Mindanao Command spokesperson, identified the arrested rebel as Roy Erecre alias “Toto/Pasyong”, Secretary of the NPA’s Central Visayas Regional Committee and his companion as Judith Jaron-Niog.

The arrested took place around 11:00 a.m.

Caber said the two were arrested after a week-long surveillance mission.

The Eastern Mindanao Command spokesperson added that the couple were mingling with tourists and visiting the various beaches in the area.

Erecre was arrested by virtue of several non-bailable warrants of arrest from regional trial Courts in Cebu and Bohol for atrocities against civilians and government forces in Bohol in the late 1990s and early 2000s.

He also led the ambush which killed two Army officers in 1999 in Carmen, Bohol.

Erecre has a bounty of P 5.4 million for his arrest.

“He will be explaining to the Communist Party why he is in the beaches and hotels of Davao with a married woman while the NPA is looking for replacements for the arrested Tiamzon couple,” Caber stressed.

Erecre is an alternate member of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Philippines-New People’s Army. (PNA) LAM/PFN