BY MARIE TONETTE MARTICIO
*
TACLOBAN City – Authorities arrested on Tuesday an alleged official of the New People’s Army (NPA) involved in Inopacan massacre in Leyte.
Police said Felomino Salazar Jr., who uses aliases “Jun Salazar”, “Lino Salazar”, and “Celso”, an executive committee member of the CPP-NPA Southern Leyte Front, was nabbed by virtue of a warrant of arrest in Barangay Tinago, Inopacan, Leyte.
He was apprehended by operatives of the Joint Task Force “TANDAYA,” which was recently organized by the Armed Forces of the Philippines and Philippine National Police.
The warrant of arrest was issued by the Regional Trial Court of the National Capital Judicial Region against Salazar for 15 counts of murder committed during the infamous CPP-NPA purging activities in the late 1980s dubbed as “Operation Anti-Venereal Disease”.
Salazar’s group was allegedly tasked to identify, arrest, investigate, and execute suspected government informants within their organization.
His former comrades who had surrendered tagged him as the “taga-ihaw” or executioner of the victims of the NPA purging directed by the CPP Central Committee purposely to cleanse its ranks of suspected government agents.
Salazar was brought to the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG) Station in Ormoc City for documentation.
