NPA leader linked to Quezon attack captured

Agents of the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) have captured a suspected ranking leader of the New People’s Army (NPA) tagged in the 2002 raid on the police station of Pagbilao, Quezon that resulted in the deaths of the municipal police chief and one of his men.

NBI director Reynaldo Wycoco said the suspect, Rodel Alcon, 35, who reportedly belongs to the NPA’s Sandatahang Yunit Propaganda, swooped down on the Pagbilao police station along with 70 other rebels, killing Superintendent Cesar Santander and SPO3 Nestor Santiago.

Wycoco said Alcon had four warrants of arrest for rebellion, murder, robbery with homicide and for failure to appear in court.

Alcon was convicted of murder in 1997 and sentenced to life imprisonment. However, months after he was locked up at the Valenzuela City jail, he was able to escape.

"Alcon is one of the most wanted officers of the NPA. He will be brought to the New Bilibid Prisons where he will serve the remainder of his prison sentence, while he is being tried in the other cases against him," Wycoco said.

Alcon was arrested at a flea market in Lopez, Quezon last July 5 by a joint team of the NBI’s Reaction, Arrest and Interdiction Division, headed by assistant regional director Ruel Lasala, the intelligence unit of the Air Force, and the Army’s 201st Infantry Brigade.

Wycoco said Alcon was with his wife when he was arrested. Seven men accompanying him managed to escape.