Suspected NPA couple arrested in Northern Palawan

From the Philippine News Agency (Jul 26): Suspected NPA couple arrested in Northern Palawan

A husband and wife, believed to be members of the communist-terrorist group New People’s Army (NPA), were arrested in the northern Palawan town of Araceli, a ranking police official told the Philippine News Agency (PNA) early Wednesday afternoon.

Palawan Police Provincial Office (PPO) Director Senior Superintendent Gabriel Lopez confirmed to the PNA that suspected NPA members Carlito and Elizabeth Labajo were arrested on July 24.

They were arrested in Barangay Tinintinan following operations conducted by elements of the Municipal Police Station (MPS) in Araceli.

“They are husband and wife arrested by our policemen in Tinintinan after residents reported them asking around and spying on the MPS, and the house of Mayor (Noel) Beronio,” Lopez said.

He said the Labajos are going to be submitted for inquest to ascertain facts relating to their arrest.

They were arrested in their home in the said barangay, where seditious documents and a caliber .38 were found.

“Our policemen in the area found documents in their possession that tell they are onto something treasonous,” Lopez said, adding two other NPA suspects were able to flee Tinintinan.

The couple is now under their custody, he said.

The arrest of the Labajos came in the wake of alleged reports that the NPA in Palawan are threatening to stage attacks against municipal police stations in the northern part of the province.

Lopez said all MPS in northern Palawan are ready, and they do not take for granted tip-offs provided by residents.

The arrest also came after joint military forces by the Western Command (WESCOM) in southern Palawan captured two major campgrounds of the NPA in Malihud, Bataraza and Samariñana, Brooke’s Point.

On July 18, a roadside bomb attack on a M35 truck injured a Marine soldier in Bataraza, southern Palawan. The following day, suspected NPA gunmen killed two Marines in Roxas town in northern Palawan.

http://www.pna.gov.ph/articles/1003032