Even while away, slain NPA leader directed offensives in Mindanao, military says

CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY –– Before being killed by authorities on Oct. 11 in Cebu City, Dennis Paradero Rodinas directed the planning and carrying out of offensives against rebel targets in Mindanao, a military official said.

In a tragic end to a five-year cat-and-mouse chase, Rodinas was killed after allegedly fighting off a team of police and Army personnel, who caught up with him in his house in hinterland Pong-ol Sibugay village.

According to Maj. Patrick Martinez, chief of the Army’s Civil-Military Operations Group in Central Visayas, Rodinas may have chosen to hide from the law in Cebu “because nobody will suspect that he is here.”

Martinez, who used to be stationed in Cagayan de Oro City, describes Rodinas as a ranking New People’s Army (NPA) guerrilla leader, whom the military holds responsible for various atrocities in Mindanao.

He said Rodinas commanded an NPA strike team that mainly operated in Southern Mindanao and the provinces of Bukidnon and Compostela Valley.

Rodinas was tagged in the killing of Mayor Dario Otaza of Loreto town, Agusan del Sur, and his son Daryl Otaza, whom the rebels kidnapped in October 2015 to carry out a death sentence imposed by an NPA kangaroo court.

Martinez said Rodinas also planned and led simultaneous attacks on the plants of Lapanday and Macondray, and Lorenzo farm in Davao City in 2017.

While in Cebu, Rodinas continued to coordinate the planning and implementation of NPA attacks in Mindanao, with the use of communication technology, Martinez added.

Nobody knew when Rodinas and his guerrilla wife, Gerlie Mercado also known as Tamsi and Sol, arrived in Cebu.

But Martinez said they could have relocated there more than two years ago when work on their newly constructed house reportedly began.

Mercado told authorities she arrived in Cebu in August last year, and Rodinas followed later.

Martinez said a former NPA rebel first recognized Rodinas, and his presence in Cebu was validated when intelligence operatives tracked Mercado in the city.

Maj. Eduardo Precioso, spokesperson of the military’s Central Command, said the Army and police team was to serve five arrest warrants to Rodinas on Oct. 11, all for heinous crimes like murder and acts of terrorism.

The warrants were issued by courts in Davao de Oro province.

Authorities have arrested Mercado along with two others, identified as Ryan and Rodelyn Moralde.

ZB