KIDAPAWAN CITY—Police authorities arrested an alleged member of the New Peoples’ Army (NPA) when a search in his house in Magpet, Cotabato Wednesday night yielded materials used in making improvised bombs.
Major Judgie Barotas, Magpet town police chief, said police searched the house of Jun Cruz Navales in Purok 2, Barangay Inac in Magpet on force of a search warrant.
Barotas said Navales was an active member of the NPA operating in the hinterlands of Magpet. Prior to the operation, he had been surveilled based on information provided by NPA rebels who have surrendered to government.
Aside from the bomb-making materials seized from Navales’ home were 40 M-14 rifle bullets and a shirt printed with “CPP-NPA.”
“He was linked to the roadside bombing of a police patrol car in Magpet last year that left one police officer killed and two others wounded,” Barotas said of the suspect who vehemently denied owning the seized bullets and bomb-making components.
Barotas disclosed that Navales admitted he was an NPA guerrilla and he built a shanty in Barangay Inac where a kidnapped policeman, PO1 Bristol Catalan, was kept.
Catalan was kidnapped by NPA rebels in Pres. Roxas town in early 2019, and was released to a representative of the Diocese of Kidapawan after two months.
Navales is now detained at the police custodial facility of Magpet.