Alleged NPA rebel yields 1.1 kilos of explosives

Police arrested yesterday a man believed to be a member of the communist New People’s Army for possessing more than a kilo of explosives in Valenzuela City.

Tito Mendez, 28, boarded a Sturdy taxi (TWL-159) driven by Reynaldo Cepe at a bus terminal in Cubao, Quezon City at around 7 a.m. Mendez is a resident of Barangay South Centro Sipocot, Ragay, Camarines Sur.

Cepe said Mendez told him he would deliver his package to a friend in Cubao. The package, according to Senior Superintendent Ranier Idio, Valenzuela City police chief, contained a 70-foot long detonation cord cut into four pieces and a plastic tube with 1.1 kilos of explosives in gel form.

Cepe said he became suspicious when his passenger could not decide where to get off even after he had been driving for nearly an hour around Cubao and his fare had reached more than P1,000.

Cepe brought Mendez to his taxi firm’s garage in Barangay Ugong, Valenzuela City and called the police.

Inspector Vicente Guzman of the Valenzuela City Sub-Station 8 arrested Mendez after he found out that the package he was carrying contained materials for manufacturing explosives.

Mendez told police he was to meet a certain Efren Dongoyan yesterday morning at the bus terminal but got lost when he decided to deliver the items himself to Dongoyan.

The Valenzuela City police turned over the investigation of Mendez’s case yesterday to the Northern Police District intelligence division. Chief Superintendent Eric Javier, NPD director, told intelligence chief Superintendent R’win Pagkalinawan to “dig deeper” into the case.

“It’s no ordinary case,” Pagkalinawan told The STAR but refused to elaborate. Sources said Mendez is a suspected member of the New People’s Army.                  – Pete Laude