The Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) denied a police claim a high-ranking New People’s Army (NPA) commander was arrested in Olongapo City last December 7.
CPP chief information officer Marco Valbuena said in a statement Thursday that the person arrested is an innocent civilian, saying the real Prudencio Calubid was abducted by military agents close to 20 years ago and remains missing to this day.
“We condemn the arrest of the unidentified elderly who is being misrepresented by the police as Calubid,” Valbuena said.
Philippine National Police (PNP) Criminal Investigation and Detection Group director Brig. Gen. Nicolas D. Torre III announced last Sunday it arrested the former NPA commander, adding the arrested person was the subject of a P7.8 million reward for his arrest.
Torre further claimed that the arrested person had been in hiding for 18 years until his capture in Brgy. Gordon Heights, Olongapo City last week following a month-long surveillance.
Calubid led the NPA attack on Bayugan Municipal Police Station in Agusan del Sur on June 19, 2004, for which a warrant of arrest was issued against him, the police official also claimed.
But the CPP said the real Calubid was in fact taken along with his wife, Celina Palma, Ariel Beloy, Antonio Lacno and his niece Gloria Soco in 2006.
“Their vehicle was blocked on an isolated stretch of highway in Sipocot, Camarines Sur as they were travelling south,” Valbuena said.
Valbuena added that a witness saw how they were handcuffed, blindfolded and forced into separate vehicles.
The CPP information chief said the PNP’s highly publicized “false report” is “a blatant lie,” motivated by the ₱7.8 million bounty money placed on Calubid’s head by the military and police.
“The fabrication is also part of the coordinated PR offensive of the Marcos regime to desperately conjure the image of having completely defeated the people’s revolutionary armed resistance,” Valbuena said.
“The false claim is a grave insult and mockery of the families’ nearly two-decade-long quest for justice and their struggle to find their disappeared loved ones,” Valbuena added. # (Raymund B. Villanueva)
