Article by:
Mary Judaline Partlow
DUMAGUETE CITY – Police operatives seized guns, ammunition, and explosives and arrested a suspected member of the Communist Party of the Philippines-New People’s Army (CPP-NPA) when they served search warrants for illegal possession of firearms and ammunition in Canlaon City, Negros Oriental on Friday.
Negros Oriental provincial police director, Col. Germano Mallari, told the Philippine News Agency (PNA) on Saturday that the two operations carried out on the same day were in line with President Rodrigo Duterte’s Whole-of-Nation-Approach.
Mallari identified the suspects and subjects of the search warrants as Jerry Montero Montefalcon and Nelfa Sandot Delima, both residents of Sitio Natuling, Barangay Budlasan in Canlaon City.
Both are allegedly Section Guerilla Unit secretaries of the Central Negros Front 1 (CN1) of the NPA.
Delima was apprehended when the warrant was served.
From her residence, the police seized a .38-caliber revolver without a serial number, a rifle grenade, and three rounds of live ammunition, Mallari said.
Meanwhile, recovered during the search at Montefalcon’s residence included a .38-caliber revolver without a serial number, a hand grenade, and three .38-caliber ammunition.
However, the suspect remains at large, the provincial police director said.
Cases for violation of Republic Act 10591 (Comprehensive Firearms and Ammunition Regulation Act) and Republic Act 9516 (Illegal/Unlawful Possession, Manufacture, Dealing In, Acquisition Or Disposition Of Firearms, Ammunition Or Explosives) are now being readied against the suspects.
The composite team members in the said operation were from the 2nd Provincial Mobile Force Company, Canlaon City Police Station, the 61st Special Action Company of the Special Action Force, the 704th Mobile Company of the Regional Mobile Force Battalion 7, Charlie Company of the 62nd Infantry Battalion of the Philippine Army, and intelligence units.
The CPP-NPA is listed as a terrorist organization by the United States, European Union, the United Kingdom, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and the Philippines.
The National Democratic Front has been formally designated as a terrorist organization by the Anti-Terrorism Council on June 23, 2021, citing it as “an integral and inseparable part” of the CPP-NPA created in April 1973. (PNA)
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