Death of top Mindanao NPA leader seen to weaken rebel strength

ZAMBOANGA CITY –– The military expects the strength of the New People’s Army (NPA) in Western Mindanao to further dwindle as its long-time leader was killed in a recent clash with government troops in Zamboanga del Norte.

Brig. Gen. Leonel Nicolas, commander of the Army’s 102nd Infantry Brigade, said Leonido Nabong, 62, succumbed to gunshot wounds after a 45-minute armed encounter in the ZNAC village of Tampilisan town last Nov. 13.

Nicolas said Nabong, who goes by the aliases Baste, Coco, Otic, and Adlay, was deputy secretary of the communist movement’s Western Mindanao Regional Party Committee, which covers Misamis Occidental, Zamboanga del Norte, and Zamboanga del Sur provinces and maintain main guerrilla bases around the Malindang mountain ranges.

Nabong is said to have been a member of the Komisyon Mindanao (Kommid), serving as its secretary from 2002 to 2011.

“The death of Nabong will significantly affect the morale of WMRPC’s remaining members because he is one of the longest-running cadre and prominent hardcore personalities of the said committee,” Nicolas said in an interview.

P6-M bounty

Nicolas revealed that the series of arrests, surrenders, and deaths of NPA members have led to more rebels returning to the fold of the law. He said they expect to see a surge in these figures with the death of Nabong.

Before Nabong’s death, at least 50 communist guerrillas have surrendered to the military this year.

Lt. Gen. Corleto Vinluan, commander of the Western Mindanao Command, said Nabong is a member of the Kommid’s powerful executive committee, which decides on revolutionary matters for the whole of Mindanao.

He carried a P6.15-million reward for his capture, dead or alive.

Nabong has been reported to have died several times in the past, prompting the military to present a grotesque picture of his dead body with friends and former comrades confirming that it was him.

He was a relative of the late Misamis Oriental Vice Gov. Norris Babiera and friend of the late Cagayan de Oro City Mayor Vicente Emano.

Topnotch student

Nabong joined the underground movement in the 1970s after the state-owned Phividec Industrial Authority took his family’s land in Tagoloan town, Misamis Oriental to form part of its 3,000-hectare industrial estate.

Before joining the rebels, Nabong, who was better known as Nido to friends, graduated with an Agriculture degree, magna cum laude, at Xavier University in Cagayan de Oro City, where he was a student leader.

He used to command a guerrilla front operating in the eastern part of Misamis Oriental before he was transferred to western Mindanao.

Nabong represented the guerrillas of Northern Mindanao in the peace talks in 1987 that eventually failed.

At the time of his death, the rebel leader had standing arrest warrants for multiple murder with quadruple frustrated murder and damage to government property, and rebellion issued by a court in Calamba, Misamis Occidental.

Lt. Col. Don Templonuevo, commanding officer of the 44th Infantry Brigade, said soldiers recovered from the clash site one M14 rifle, four M16A1 Elisco rifles, one M203 grenade launcher, 10 long and four short magazines for the M16 rifle, and six rounds of 40mm mortar.

Templonuevo added that soldiers tried to revive Nabong, who still had faint breathing when found.

His former comrades said the death of Nabong, who is a known strategist, would be a big loss to the NPA.

ZB