Rally. Members of Bayan, Akbayan and Piston stage a rally in front of the Cebu City Police Office in Camp Sotero Cabahug to demand the release of Amelia Pond, who police say is actually Adelfa Toledo, a member of the executive committee of the New People’s Army in Southern Mindanao. (Sun.Star Photo/Amper Campaña)
SUSPECTED member of the executive committee of the New People’s Army (NPA) Southern Mindanao was arrested yesterday in Cebu City on a warrant for frustrated and double murder in Compostela Valley in 2000.
Adelfa Toledo was taken into custody during the Rural Missionaries of the Philippines (RMP) national assembly at the Living the Gospel Renewal Center on Archbishop Reyes Ave. by operatives of the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG) 7.
But the suspect insisted that she is Amelia “Amy” Pond, not Toledo.
“Witnesses pointed out that she was the person who was in the warrant of arrest. The picture that we have is really her after we compared it (to the identification cards recovered from her),” said CIDG 7 Chief Senior Supt. Marlon Tayaba.
The warrant stemmed from the deaths of Barangay Councilors Florencio Guay and Roberto Kapangpangan, who were allegedly killed by Toledo’s group in the barangay hall of Ngan, Compostela Valley on Aug. 7, 2000.
Other aliases
Tayaba, however, clarified that they arrested Toledo because she had an arrest warrant and not because she is affiliated with the leftist group.
Tayaba said Toledo has other aliases, including Tasing, Gems and Budi, which made her difficult to track.
“She’s highly mobile and arrived here in Cebu from Davao last week. It so happened that we had a window of opportunity to arrest her,” he said.
When asked if her arrest would not affect the peace talks between the government and the NPA, Tayaba said the operation was legitimate, since they were serving a warrant.
According to the CIDG, Toledo, who joined the underground movement in 1978, is the regional coordinator of the RMP in Southern Mindanao.
It believes she used the alias Tasing to supervise the operation of the Salugpungan Ta’tano Igkanogon Community Learning Centers that are associated with the Communist Party of the Philippines, the NPA and the National Democratic Front.
Condemned
Toledo’s arrest was condemned by Bayan Central Visayas chairman Jaime Paglinawan, calling it unlawful.
“Why would they accuse an ordinary citizen? Authorities should release her because they had no right insisting that she’s Adelfa Toledo,” Paglinawan said.
Members of Bayan, Akbayan and the Pinagkaisang Samahan ng mga Tsuper and Operators Nationwide Cebu staged a rally in front of the Cebu City Police Office in Camp Sotero Cabahug yesterday afternoon to demand her release.
They were greeted by anti-illegal drugs jingles sang by members of the Police Community Relations.
http://www.sunstar.com.ph/cebu/local-news/2016/08/20/mindanao-npa-official-falls-cebu-492593
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