AUTHORITIES arrested an alleged high-ranking cadre of the New People’s Army, the armed wing the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP-NPA), over the weekend.

Alfredo Mapano, 55, alias Pedro Panis, was nabbed at the Middleton Appartelle in Barangay Carmen by personnel from the Police Station (PS) and the National Intelligence Coordinating Agency (Nica) Saturday evening.

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In a statement, the Fourth Infantry Division (4th ID) said Mapano is the "regional leader" of the NPA working in North Central Mindanao. The military said Mapano commanded at least five rebel sub-groups located in Agusan provinces, Bukidnon and Misamis Oriental.

BGen Mario F Chan, 4th ID commander, said Mapano has eight pending warrants of arrests issued by the different trial courts in Misamis Oriental, Bukidnon and Agusan del Sur. Six of these cases, he said, are non-bailable.

The 4th ID statement said Mapano was captured while "vacationing."
Acting City Police Director Noel Armilla said he would give an official statement on Mapano’s arrest Monday.

Mapano’s lawyer, Cecille Faelnar, said she advised her client to invoke his right to remain silent.

Faelnar, a member of Union of People’s Lawyers in Mindanao (UPLM), declined to answer when asked about allegations that Mapano is an NPA cadre.

She added that Mapano’s lawyer is Frederico Gapuz, and that she was only responding to the suspect’s call when he was being arrested. 

Faelnar said Mapano was at Middleton Appartelle over the weekend for a scheduled meeting with his children.  “He (Mapano) was seeing his kids yesterday at Middleton Appartelle, when PS4 and NICA personnel came to the place where they stayed at 7 pm on Saturday,” the lawyer said, when asked what Mapano was doing at the place.

She alleged that after Mapano was arrested, he was whisked in an unmarked car with NICA operatives and brought to the NICA Office in Camp Evangelista, which also serves as the headquarters of Fourth Infantry Division.

She said Mapano was only released from NICA custody an hour later after UPLM lawyers demanded that Mapano be returned to the police.