By FRANCIS T. WAKEFIELD
Four female members of the terrorist Communist Party of the Philippines-New People’s Army (CNTs), one of which is said to be a student of the Polytechnic University of the Philippines (PUP), were arrested in Nueva Ecija on Saturday.
The arrested female rebels were identified as Yolanda Diamsay alias Mariz, Eulalia Pangkaliwangan Ladesma, Rachel Acana Galario alias Rose and Elaine Edzel Amocling alias George, said to be a student from PUP.
A report coming from the Army’s 7th Infantry Division disclosed that the four were collared at about 3:40 in the afternoon at Sitio 32, Barangay Agbannawag, Rizal, Nueva Ecija.
The information on the presence of the female rebels was provided by a concerned citizen residing in the area.
According to the information, the rebels were conducting recruitment, propaganda activities and extortion in the community.
Joint elements from the 7th ID units and the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG) Nueva Ecija with the Municipal Police Station, Rizal, Nueva Ecija acted on the information and proceeded to the barangay.
Upon arrival at the area, the government troops found two ‘amazonas’ recruiting residents. One of them was caught carrying a rifle. Two other female rebels went out of a nipa hut nearby and were caught with firearms, various ammunitions, explosives and Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs).
The government troops recovered from the female rebels a cal. 9mm sub machine gun, a magazine of sub machine gun, 20 rounds live ammunition of sub machine gun, four hand grenades, two IEDs, two long magazines of M16 rifle, three short magazines of M16 rifle, 15 live ammunitions of cal .45 pistol, 14 rounds live ammunitions of cal. 7.62 mm, 105 rounds live ammunitions for cal. 5.56 m16 rifle, 56 rounds live ammunitions for mini machine gun, one lenovo laptop, a Lenovo tablet, 10 cellular phones, a laptop charger, 15 battery packs, four USBs, three memory cards, three sim cards, an Epson printer, voluminous subversive documents and the rebels’ personal belongings.
As this developed, the 7th ID said that Emocling has been identified as a student from the Polytechnic University of the Philippines (PUP), one of the schools in the list of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) that are allegedly targetted as possible source of NPA recruits.
Meantime, the Northern Luzon Command (NoLCom) and Eastern Mindanao Command (EastMinCom) scored anew against communist terrorists in recent encounters and surrenders.
In a statement, the AFP’s Public Affairs Office said in EastMinCom alone, a total of 8,665 surrenderees from January 1 to October 10, 2018 has been recorded and are currently undergoing process for their eligibility to avail of the Enhanced Comprehensive Local Integration Program (E-CLIP) benefits from the government.
On October 9, both troops in Impasug-ong, and Pangatucan, Bukidnon encountered different communist terrorist groups (CTG). Troops of 8th Infantry Battalion (IB) encountered more or less five CTG members in Impasug-ong.
Meanwhile, two Special Forces team in Pangatucan encountered 10 CTG members resulting to one enemy killed and two troopers wounded-in-action.
On October 8, troops of the 36th IB were able to seize one sack of books and news magazines containing Communist propaganda and reading materials that they distribute to schools in Carmen, Surigao del Sur.
Also recently, 10 members of Milisyang Bayan voluntarily surrendered to the 75IB in Rosario, Agusan del Sur bringing along seven firearms.
In 2018 so far, the EastMinCom has seized 821 firearms from surrenderees and encounters, and a total of 324 improvised explosive devices.
There are also 131 CTG encampments that were seized and cleared from war material and explosives.
