Wanted for murder: Female NPA leader falls to authorities

GUIUAN, EASTERN SAMAR, Philippines  â€” Police and military troops yesterday afternoon arrested a woman, who was identified as an NPA leader, from her rented house in Barangay 8 of this town.

The arresting team, led by Lt. Col. Napoleon De Vera of the 14th Infantry Battalion, identified the arrested NPA “amazon” as Edna Montes, who was allegedly the secretary of the Eastern Samar provincial party committee of the CPP-NPA-NDF.

The arrest was made by virtue of a warrant for murder issued by Judge Juliana Adalim White of RTC Branch 5 in Oras town of Eastern Samar.

During the arrest, Montes was in possession of a postal ID bearing another name of Ester Belicario, but she was positively identified by her former colleague in the underground movement – who was with the arresting team – that she was the Montes the authorities were looking for.

Montes and several others reportedly were in town for about two weeks already and rented a house for some activities that have yet to be determined by authorities.

A source, who requested not to be identified for security reasons, told The Freeman that during the conduct of the arrest, Montes and several of her companions, mostly women, looked like real activists. “The police weren’t even able to get inside the house because they were armed only with an arrest warrant and not a search warrant,” said the source.

However, a smoke emitting from one of the rooms made everyone suspect that there was fire, but it was later found out that some of Montes’ companions were burning several suspected subversive documents and other communist-inspired books. Partially burned documents were also recovered by the arresting team.

Only Montes was eventually arrested and was brought to Oras, Eastern Samar. She will be presented to the RTC where she is facing murder raps.

Meanwhile, the 8th Infanty Division, thru Capt. Amado Gutierrez, chief of the Division Public Affairs Office, said that it will soon issue a detailed report on the arrest and the alleged involvement of Montes with the NPA, after she undergoes the standard process of the investigation.  (FREEMAN)