DAVAO CITY — A front deputy secretary of the New People’s Army (NPA) was killed when police and Army operatives swooped down on a house in Tagum City Monday.
Lt. Col. Esteyven Ducusin, commander of the Philippine Army’s 71st Infantry Battalion identified the rebel leader as Cindy Terado alias Jill, deputy secretary of Guerrilla Front 2.
Terado was killed in the operation in Barangay Canocotan, Tagum City, Davao del Norte.
Ducusin said the operation was meant to serve a warrant of arrest against Jay Mendoza, the executive commander of Guerrilla Front 2 under the NPA’s Southern Mindanao Regional Committee.
Mendoza has been on the list of wanted persons for serious illegal detention, the Army official said.
Ducusin said that when operatives were closing in on the safe house of Mendoza, they were fired upon by an undetermined number of armed men believed to be NPA combatants.
The five-minute firefight resulted in the death of Terado and the recovery of her M16 rifle loaded with 19 ammunition. Mendoza and the other NPA members escaped.
Ducusin said the troops also recovered an anti-personnel mine, a cellular phone, drug paraphernalia with residue, subversive documents, and white envelopes, which could be intended for extortion activities.
“I will reiterate that our bound duty is to protect the people and secure the land,” Ducusin said. –PNA
