Just a little over six hours after a band of suspected New People’s Army (NPA) rebels raided and burned some heavy equipment at a construction depot in Carcar town shortly before 7 p.m. Tuesday, one of the raiders was arrested at a police checkpoint in Minglanilla town.
Larry Boy Montecillo, 32, alias Ka Randy, was making his escape on a bus bound for Cebu City not knowing the route was already swarming with policemen alerted about the NPA raid on the depot and quarry site of Gorones Development Corp. in Carcar.
The raid, carried out by at least five rebels armed only with handguns, was apparently meant to intimidate Gorones which has reportedly refused to pay "revolutionary taxes."
It was Montecillo’s first taste of an actual rebel operation against a real target since he underwent training as an NPA cadre last February. He, however, said he had no regrets despite getting arrested.
At first, he denied membership in the rebel movement until he was positively identified by Gorones guard Manolito Buhawi as the one who disarmed him of his shotgun.
Montecillo, a Tuburan native but a resident of Talisay City, then warned of more rebel attacks but explained that these "punitive measures" were being carried out selectively and only after careful planning and deliberations.
He said he joined the rebel movement upon seeing the failure of the agrarian reform program and the mounting problems of the country.
He said his group, made up of 12 members, two of whom are women, belongs to the so-called Front 2 of the Central Visayas Regional Party Committee headed by Ronald Sendrejas alias Ka Aram, who personally led Tuesday’s raid.
Montecillo’s squad operates in Cebu’s mid-north area but was assigned to conduct the raid in Carcar, far from its base of operations.
Aram, Meloy and Adon were already in Carcar since Aug. 17, while Elias followed three days later, Montecillo said.
He said that after getting separated from his wife for six months since joining the NPA, he was allowed to go home on Aug. 23 before he followed the rest of the raiding group to Carcar last Tuesday.
They stayed in a house in Barangay Valencia, Carcar where they were given caliber .45 revolvers. They arrived at the Gorones depot on rented motorcycles at about 5:30 p.m.
In all, they burned a backhoe, a payloader and a crusher and pushed a water tanker down a ravine. They also herded workers but harmed no one.
They took a passing passenger bus not far from the site, with Aram, Adon, Elias and Meloy disembarking in Naga. Montecillo went on, wanting to go home to his wife in Talisay when he was arrested in Minglanilla.
Montecillo was charged with arson the other day.
Military officials said the NPA appears to have expanded with the recent formation of a "Front 5" based in the south.
Lt. Col. Bimbo Colina, the Armed Forces’ Central Command intelligence deputy chief, said the new front, organized last year, now has at least nine members and is reportedly led by a certain Lucrecio Lumantad, alias Ka Lucring.
Meanwhile, an Army platoon clashed with an NPA unit in Kapatagan, Lanao del Norte last Tuesday, wounding two rebels.
The guerrillas, numbering at least 15, left behind a grenade and personal effects after the encounter in Barangay Tula-tulahan.— Freeman News Service, Paolo Romero and Lino de la Cruz