Suspect Wigberto Villarico Photo from the Philippine Army FB page
MANILA, Philippines – Military and police operatives arrested a ranking communist leader in Quezon City on Thursday morning.
In a statement, Philippine Army 2nd Infantry Division public affairs office chief Lt. Col. Jeffrex Molina said the suspect, Wigberto Villarico, was nabbed in an operation of the Joint Task Force Katagalugan (JTFK) and the Philippine National Police (PNP) in Barangay Fairview.
The suspect, with aliases Benjamin Mendoza, Juventud del Fiero, Alejandro Montalban, Laurence, Joven, Mark, Cris, Baylon, and Baler, is the secretary of the New People’s Army’s (NPA) Southern Tagalog Regional Party Committee (STRPC) and is a member of the Political Bureau (PolitBuro) of the Communist Party of the Philippines-NPA-National Democratic Front (CPP-NPA-NDF).
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He has a standing arrest warrant for kidnapping with murder issued by the Mauban, Quezon Regional Trial Court (RTC) Branch 64.
“Villarico has been violating human rights, international humanitarian law, and various laws of the land as he was responsible for the series of atrocities against government forces, the killing and liquidation of some prominent personalities, terrorist attacks on innocent communities, sabotaging government projects, and various extortion and money-making activities in Southern Tagalog,” he added.
Molina said JTFK has long been suspecting that Villarico is neither staying in Mindoro nor in the Southern Tagalog area but is manning the operations of the communist organization.
He said the arrest of Villarico would create a vacuum in the CPP’s organizational and ideological leadership, leaving the underground movement without a sense of strategic and operational directions and a reason for its existence.
Molina added the 2nd Infantry Division’s successes over the past months are being traced to be leading to eventual fall of Villarico into the hands of the authorities.
Meanwhile, JTFK head Brig. Gen. Cerilo Balaoro Jr. said these victories are not just the success of the people in Southern Tagalog who have been calling for the eventual or total downfall of the communist insurgency in the region, but the success of every Filipino.
“With the arrest of Villarico, the CPP’s sectoral front organizations and the affiliated mass organizations are expected to stage massive propaganda ploys in an attempt to deceive the public and malign the government and the Philippine Army,” he added.