The two amazons — Araceli Arciaga alias Ka Rhoda, and Josephine Perez alias Ka Loren — are ranking officers of the Communist Party of the Philippines-New People’s Army (CPP-NPA), according to Lt. Col. Preme Monta, spokesman of the Armed Forces’ Northern Luzon Command (Nolcom).
Arciaga is the secretary-general of the CPP’s Ilocos-Cordillera Regional Party Committee, while Perez is a political officer of the CPP and the NPA’s Komiteng Larangang Gerilya-Sinag in the Cordilleras, Monta said.
They were arrested in Barangay Bakekeng Central on the strength of a court-issued warrant.
Monta said the arresting team seized from them two caliber .22 and .38 pistols, two pounds of C-4 used in making explosives, 12 non-electric blasting caps, a blasting device, an electric tester, two timing devices, two meters of M-700 time fuse and five meters of detonating cord.
Arciaga and Perez, according to Monta, were also responsible for the May 16 ambush of members of the Army’s 17th Infantry Battalion in Lagangilang, Abra, the destruction of a Globe Telecom cellsite in Sta. Cruz, Ilocos Sur, and the killing of Mayor Teodoro Hernaez of Sta. Lucia, Ilocos Sur.
During tactical interrogation, Arciaga reportedly admitted having "directed the implementation" of an order from the NPA central command for Jovencio Balweg to kill his brother, priest-turned-rebel Conrado Balweg.
Conrado Balweg was an NPA ally before he severed ties with the rebel movement after the 1986 EDSA Revolution, and set up the Cordillera People’s Liberation Army (CPLA), which later forged a peace pact with the government.
Monta said Arciaga also told investigators that she was an "alternate member" of the CPP’s central committee, which is reportedly comprised of self-exiled CPP founding chairman Jose Ma. Sison, Leo Velasco, Benito Tiamzon, Elizabeth Principe, Eugenia Magpantay-Topacio, Vicente Ladlad and CPP spokesman Gregorio "Ka Roger" Rosal.
Arciaga is a "high-caliber" communist cadre who, together with Perez, has been with the communist movement for about three decades now, he added.
In a related development, the second top commander of the NPA unit in Bataan and an amazon were killed in a fierce firefight with government forces in Abucay town last Tuesday.
Slain were Ka Kardo or Ka Ringo, said to be the vice secretary or second in command of the NPA’s Bataan-Zambales committee, and Liezl Lalo alias Ka He or Ka Migs. — With Mike Frialde, Ding Cervantes, James Mananghaya, Benjie Villa, Raffy Viray and Ric Sapnu