Village chief supporting NPA, armed group arrested

From the Philippine News Agency (Mar 2, 2021): Village chief supporting NPA, armed group arrested (By Perla Lena)

SEIZED. Authorities recovered a grenade, handgun, and ammunition from Joewinny Giganto, chief of Barangay Calang in Dueñas, Iloilo on Tuesday (March 2, 2021). Giganto was identified as the leader of a new armed group. (PNA photo courtesy of CIDG 6)

A village chairperson who was identified as a supporter of the New People's Army (NPA) was arrested for illegal possession of firearms and explosives in Dueñas, Iloilo on Tuesday.

The house of Barangay Calang chair Joewinny Giganto was searched by operatives of the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group Western Visayas (CIDG 6), Regional Mobile Force Battalion, and Dueñas Municipal Police Station in the presence of barangay council officers at around 5:30 a.m. by virtue of a search warrant issued by the Regional Trial Court Branch 69’s Judge Domingo L. Casiple, Jr.

Confiscated from his possession were one unit of fragmentation hand grenade, one .45-caliber pistol, a magazine, and seven pieces of live ammunition, CIDG 6 special operations group chief, Major Jess Baylon, said in a phone interview.

“The subject is under the custody of the CIDG and he is due for inquest proceedings,” he said.

The Police Regional Office-6, in a statement, said Giganto was identified as an NPA supporter and leader of a new armed group involved in the “proliferation of loose firearms and gun-running activities in the province of Iloilo and nearby provinces”.

Associate Provincial Prosecutor Flosemer Chris Gonzales, chair of legal cooperation cluster of the Regional Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (RTF ELCAC) confirmed that the suspect is the brother of Ismael “Ka Bob” Giganto, a leader of the New People’s Army (NPA) faction that led an ambush in Barangay Daan Sur, Tapaz, Iloilo on February 2003.

“Your efforts and your dedication to your duties have contributed to the maintenance of peace and order in Iloilo and the Island of Panay. Continue to discharge your duties faithfully, keeping in mind the safety and well-being of the people you have sworn to protect and to serve. The RTF6-ELCAC is one with you in your pursuit of peace and order,” Gonzales said.

https://www.pna.gov.ph/articles/1132256