NPA disowns slain ‘sparu’ in Laguna

SAN PEDRO CITY – The New People’s Army (NPA) denied that the alleged top rebel assassin slain in an encounter with the police last week was one of their own.

In an emailed statement, the NPA’s Cezar Batralo Command in Laguna said the group Ismael Criste was a “criminal syndicate” that state forces in the province have long been aware of.

Criste was killed while four others, Luis Alano Jr., 44; Shirley Martinez, 47; Felicidad Villegas, 60; and Cristy Lacuarta, 30, were arrested following a brief gunfight with the police in Barangay (village) Dambo, Pangil town on May 2.

In a press conference on May 3 at the Laguna police headquarters in Sta. Cruz town, the police announced that the group operated as the “Sparu” (Special Partisan Unit) of the communist rebels that collected “revolutionary taxes.”

‘Fake’

“Ismael Criste’s group was not (part of the) NPA but instead a criminal syndicate controlled by the (Philippine National Police-Armed Forces of the Philippines). They wouldn’t dare carry firearms during (an election) gun ban if they were not being protected by the AFP,” said the NPA statement written in Filipino.

It added that the documents supposedly recovered by the police after the encounter “were documents with fake NPA letterhead,” it added.

The NPA said Major General Rhoderick Parayno, commander of the Army’s 2nd Infantry Batallion and the top regional police officials “should know who Criste’s handler was.”

Sought for his comment Tuesday, Parayno stood by the government’s report that Criste’s group was part of the communist movement.

He said the operation that led to their arrest was based on an intelligence that the rebel team was planning to “liquidate” police officials in Laguna.