Despite the ongoing peace talks, a district leader of Revolutionary Proletarian Army-Alex Boncayao Brigade was arrested yesterday by the police for alleged illegal possession of firearms in Brgy. 2, San Carlos City, Negros Occidental.
A barangay kagawad and another person were also apprehended by the police in simultaneous operations in Brgy. Nataban, also in San Carlos City, Senior Inspector Mark Anthony Darroca, deputy police chief, said.
The raids, which were joint efforts of the Regional Special Operations Group of Police Regional Office 6, 6 th Special Action Battalion, Criminal Investigation Detection Group and its Civilian Informant Service, NOPPO Special Operations Group and the local police, were covered by search warrants issued by San Carlos Regional Trial Court Judge Kathrine Go.
Darroca said the raid at the house of Marlon de los Santos yielded an M-16 assault rifle, a carbine and a .45 caliber pistol, with magazines of assorted ammunition.
De los Santos used to be the RPA-ABB commander in the 1 st district of Negros Occidental. He is now the secretary of the KAPATIRAN para sa Progresong Panlipunan (Brotherhood for Social Progress), which used to be the RPA-ABB.
Darroca identified the two other arrested suspects as Kagawad Jose Tom Ramas and Mario Ramas Sr.
He said the raid on their residences in Brgy. Nataban, San Carlos City, also yielded a Colt .45 caliber pistol with a magazine containing nine ammunition, as well as a Smith and Wesson .38 caliber revolver and 27 rounds of 5.56 mm bullets.
Darroca said the arrested suspects failed to present documents, allowing them to possess the firearms.
Senior Inspector Joel Cambi, RSOG deputychief, said in an interview with Aksyon Radyo, that the simultaneous raids were an offshoot of an order issued by Chief Supt. Josephus Angan, regional police director of Western Visayas,for them to intensify the campaign against the proliferation of loose firearms.
There were reports that the KAPATIRAN (Brotherhood for Social Progress) leadership protested the arrest of de los Santos, who is the secretary general of the group.
As part of the peace agreement, the name of the RPA-ABB was changed to Kapatiran as part of the compliance with the provisions of the peace agreement they had signed with the government in year 2000.
The peace agreement aimed to transform the RPA-ABB into a civilian, socio- economic organization; and to mainstream its members into their communities, provide them with livelihood and employment, and move them towards disarmament and the dismantling of their military structure.
Members of the defunct RPA-ABB still possess more than 400 guns and explosives in Negros,Panay and other areas of Mindanao and Luzon, records of the Office of the Presidential Adviser on Peace Process show.
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