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Monday, May 22, 2006
Rebel leader linked to killings, attacks arrested (4:40 p.m.)
MANILA -- A high-ranking communist rebel leader linked to the killings of a town police chief and two breakaway guerrilla leaders has been arrested, the military announced Monday.
Delfin de Guzman, who uses at least seven aliases, was arrested May 11 by police and military intelligence agents at his home in Norzagaray town in Bulacan province north of Manila. His capture wasn't immediately announced because investigators were interrogating him, military Chief of Staff Gen. Generoso Senga said.
Senga presented a handcuffed de Guzman at a news conference but did not allow him to talk.
Soldiers and police also seized a pistol, ammunition and rebel documents from de Guzman's house, he said.
The capture was announced as the military and police were struggling to deal with a new wave of New People's Army attacks across the nation, which have allowed the guerrillas to capture firearms and ammunition.
De Guzman allegedly was the secretary of the Communist Party of the Philippines' provincial committee in Bulacan, and also a ranking rebel leader in the larger Central Luzon region. Hundreds of guerrillas operate in the area, Senga said.
De Guzman's captors had a Bulacan court warrant for his alleged role in the 2003 killing of police Superintendent Tomas de las Armas, then the police chief of Bulacan's Angat town, according to Senga.
Senga said De Guzman admitted involvement in the killings of prominent communist rebel commanders Rolly Kintanar in 2003 and Arturo Tabara in September last year. The two were top commanders who broke away from the mainstream Marxist group and were accused by party leaders of turning into military spies.
The military has linked de Guzman to seven other killings and accused him of extorting money from unidentified corporations, helping organize an attack on an army detachment in Bulacan in 1993, and burning two telecommunication towers in the province.
The rebels, who have waged a Marxist rebellion for 37 years, are on US and European Union lists of terrorist organizations. They suspended Norwegian-brokered peace talks with Manila two years ago.(AP) |
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