Eduardo Almores Esteban
LA TRINIDAD, Benguet—A joint team of police and military intelligence operatives arrested a top leader of the New People’s Army (NPA) in the Cordillera Region in Jaro, Iloilo last Tuesday, a senior police official said.
Chief Supt. Roberto Soriano, deputy regional director for administration, said the operatives nabbed Eduardo Almores Esteban, secretary of the Ilocos-Cordillera Regional Committee, near Landheights Subdivision in Barangay Bantala, Jaro.
“Esteban is listed number one in the Order of Battle. He has a P5.8 million prize on his head,” Soriano said.
Esteban, 60, who was hiding in Iloilo, was the highest NPA official in the Cordillera Region to fall. Operatives reported it took about three months of tight surveillance operation to pin down Esteban.
The NPA leader also faced murder charges in Abra and Ilocos Sur. The trial courts in Bangued and Candon City have issued warrants for his arrest.
Soriano said Esteban will be turned over the court in Abra where he faced charges of rebellion and several counts of murder and frustrated murder.
He said the arrest of Esteban was a big blow on the insurgency movement in the Ilocos and Cordillera regions and he expect other NPA leaders to fall in the next several months.
“We will continue to intensify our operations against the remaining remnants of the communist movement in our areas of jurisdiction so that they will be forced to yield and we can bring lasting peace in the remote villages in the region,” Soriano said.
In Cabanatuan City in Nueva Ecija, a trial court in the capitol compound suspended its hearings following a bomb alert that turned out to be a hoax, court officials said.
Executive Judge Primo Sio said a court personnel received a call about a bomb set to explode inside the courthouse and he immediately ordered employees to leave the building.
The army’s explosives ordnance and disposal team responded to call for assistance and used trained dogs to go over the building and later declared the area safe.
http://manilastandardtoday.com/2014/08/08/cops-nab-top-luzon-npa-leader-in-iloilo/
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