CPP-NPA finance officer in Mindanao arrested
BUTUAN CITY – The alleged finance officer of the Komisyon Mindanao (KOMMID) of the Communist Party of the Philippines-New People’s Army (CPP-NPA) Northeastern Mindanao Regional Committee (NEMRC) was arrested Friday afternoon by joint government security forces in Barangay Bading this city.
Leonida P. Guao, also known to have the aliases Leah, Ligaya, and Laya, did not resist when accosted by joint elements of the 36th Infantry Battalion (36th IB), the Regional Intelligence Investigation Division of the Police Regional Office 13 (PRO 13 RIID), and the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG 13) at 2:50 p.m. Friday, according to 36th IB Civil Military Operations (CMO) officer Captain Francisco P. Garello, Jr.
Garello said Guao was arrested on the strength of an arrest warrant issued by the Regional Trial Court of Bayugan City, Agusan del Sur for murder.
She is the finance officer of the CPPNPA Komisyon Mindanao (KOMMID) responsible for the synchronization of the collection and distribution of extortion money in Mindanao.
In a statement, Brig. Gen. Franco Nemesio M. Gacal, commander of the 402nd Infantry Brigade, said that Guao, being the head of KOMMID’s finance committee, “knows a lot about the extortion activities, not only in Caraga, but the entire Mindanao.
"We hope that she will cooperate with the investigating team in identifying individuals, business establishments and organizations that are providing financial support to the CPP-NPA terrorists," Gacal said.
Meanwhile, a CPP-NPA leader and her staff surrendered to military authorities in Davao del Sur, also last Friday.
Col. Roberto Ancan, 1002nd Infantry Brigade commander, disclosed that Alvie Marie Dominador, secretary of NPA-Guerilla Front 51, Southern Mindanao Regional Committee, and her staff officer Shane Rosete yielded to the 39th Infantry Battalion in Santa Cruz, Davao del Sur.
Ancan said Dominador became a communist ideologue when she joined the leftist youth organization Kabataang Makabayan in 1999, and became a fullpledged communist member after she was designated secretary of NPA Guerilla Front 51 operating in the provinces of Davao del Sur and North Cotabato.
Dominador said they decided to surrender as government troops heightened military offensives against the communist rebel group which forced them to hold up in the jungle.
“We’re always on the run and I can no longer go home to see my family and children, “Dominador said.
Their return to the fold of the law came following the surrender of Noel Legazpi, secretary-general of the NPA Far South Mindanao Region and his wife Jeanalyn Bendalian, an NPA medical staff to local officials and military authorities in South Cotabato last January 25.
Ancan urged other NPA rebels who are still with the communist underground movement to surrender and avail the government’s peace and reconciliatory initiatives. (With a report from Joseph Jubelag)