THE Baguio City Peace and Order Council (CPOC) will adopt a resolution by the City Council declaring the Communist Party of the Philippines-New People’s Army (CPP-NPA) and other threat groups as persona non grata.

In the first quarter meeting of the CPOC, majority of its members agreed to adopt an earlier resolution of the City Council after operatives from the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) and Philippine National Police (PNP) successfully neutralized a high ranking leader and suspected members of the CPP – NPA in the city, killed in an early morning firefight last month.

“This move of the CPOC is a representation of the council’s support or manifesto supporting the City Council’s resolution declaring the CPP-NPA and other threat groups as persona non grata,” Baguio City Mayor and CPOC Chairman Benjamin Magalong said.

The CNTs killed were Julius Soriano Giron, suspected chairman of the CPP in Northern Luzon and a member of the CPP-NPA’s executive committee, Lourdes Tan Torres /Ma Lourdes Dineros Tangco ‘aka’ Tita, an executive committee and their National Health Bureau, and an unidentified male serving as Giron’s security aide.

Police Colonel Allen Rae Co, Baguio City Police Office (BCPO) city director explained the death of Giron and his comrades was made possible after law enforcement agencies received information from rebel returnees on their presence in the city reportedly for rest and recreation.

“The subject has several standing warrants of arrest against him and the operating team had with them a valid search warrant which was served against the suspect/s. The BCPO provided an area security for the operating units coming from the National Capital Regional Command as well as the Army units. We are still awaiting the report from our SOCO(Scene Of the Crime Operatives) team but generally based on our initial investigation, it was a valid operation against the subjects,” Co explained.