End of the line for top NPA leader in Mindanao

ATOP leader of the New People’s Army (NPA) whose group operates in the tri-boundary of Davao, Caraga and Northern Mindanao regions was killed during a joint lawenforcement operations by policemen, and soldiers, in Butuan City.

Manuel G. Magante, alias Jino and Saldo, died after he traded shots with the arresting team along Rosales Street, Barangay 15, San Ignacio, Butuan City, at around 11 a.m. on Wednesday, according to Lt. Col. Ezra Balagtey, spokesman of the Armed Forces of the Philippines Eastern Mindanao Command.

Magante was the finance officer of the Regional Operations Command and head of the Intelligence Special Operations Group, both of the NPA’s Southern Mindanao Regional Committee.

Balagtey said Magante was killed when he fought it out with a combined team of policemen and soldiers who were about to serve warrants of arrest against him for cases of robbery with homicide issued by Executive Judge Hilarion P. Clapis Jr. of the 11th Judicial Region, Branch 3 of Nabuturan, Davao de Oro.

The arresting officers recovered a .45 caliber pistol, a magazine, seven rounds of ammunition, an XLR 200 Honda motorcycle with plate number MO 4686, a Nokia cell phone and a Lenovo laptop.

Balagtey said Magante was also involved in the murder of Datu Ruben Labawan in 2015, abduction of a jail warden of Compostela in 2015, and in the aduction and murder of Loreto, Agusan del Sur, Mayor Dario O. Otaza, and his son Darryl O. Otaza, in Butuan City last 2015.

He was also involved in the disarming of the peace and order personnel of Barangay Mahingcog, Magpet, in 2016, and in the torching of heavy equipment of a construction company in Barangay Callawa, Davao City, in 2018.