NPA leader in Western Visayas captured

By Ronron
September 21, 2007

A suspected leader of the New People’s Army (NPA) in Western Visayas was apprehended by the military last Wednesday, an Army commander said Friday.

Maj. Gen. Jovenal Narcise, commander of the Philippine Army’s 3rd Infantry Division, identified the captured rebel as Hernando Laurente, alias Ka Nikki/Intsik, who claimed to be the Logistics and Finance Officer of the Northern Negros Front of the Communist Party of the Philippines-NPA.

Narcise said Laurente, 26, is included in the military’s Order of Battle in the region.

Laurente was nabbed at around 9pm last Wednesdy by elements of the Army’s 61st Infantry Battalion in Barangay Blumentrit, Murcia town, Negros Occidental, Narcise said.

“(Laurente) is a graduate of the Paglaum National High School in Bacolod City. He is already two years in the underground movement and due to his wit and talent, was already entrusted of sensitive positions in the movement. He was recruited by Bong Mata in 2005,” Narcise said.

As Logistics and Finance Officer, Laurente claimed he was in charge of procurement of supplies to support the needs of armed men operating in Silay, Cadiz and Sagay, all known areas of the Northern Negros Front, Narcise said.

He disclosed that the family of Laurente had earlier advised him to go back to the folds of the law “as they too believed that what they are fighting for is a lost cause.”

The 7,100-strong NPA has been waging guerilla warfare in the countryside in the last 38 years to push for a revolutionary form of government./DMS