2 high-ranking NPA officials nabbed in Marikina City

A couple identified by authorities as high-ranking officials of the communist New People’s Army were arrested in Marikina City on Friday afternoon, just hours after members of the same group attacked 120 policemen out for a jog in Mountain Province, killing one and wounding nine others.

Supt. Remus Medina, head of the Eastern Police District (EPD) intelligence unit, identified the two as Juan Paolo Verzosa, 28, and his wife Grace Abaratigue Verzosa, 25.

EPD intelligence operatives took into custody the couple as they were staying at a house in a subdivision, Medina said, adding that the two had been under surveillance for months.

He refused to say where the operation was conducted although Senior Supt. Gabriel Lopez, Marikina police chief, said the Verzosas were arrested at La Colina Subdivision in Barangay Parang.

Medina said the couple had been staying in the area for almost a year.

According to authorities, the Verzosas were ordered arrested by Judge Esteban de la Peña of Branch 28 of the Catbalogan, Samar, Regional Trial Court on charges of robbery with homicide and illegal possession of explosives.

Medina said that Juan Paolo Verzosa, also known as Arvin, Cocoy and Egay, was an intelligence officer of the Samar Provincial Party Committee which is under the jurisdiction of the Eastern Visayas Regional Party Committee.

He was a fine arts student of the University of the Philippines in Diliman, Quezon City, before he dropped out and joined the rebel group.

His wife, on the other hand, is reportedly a medical officer and a staffer of the Eastern Visayas Regional Party Committee’s  production bureau. She uses the aliases Joy and Lenon.

The two are detained at the EPD headquarters and will soon  be taken to Samar, according to  authorities.

“It’s normal [to find CPP-NPA members] anywhere, they’re just in hiding. And you can’t touch them unless there’s a warrant for their arrest or you catch them [in the act of doing something],” Medina said.

He added that the arrest of the two “high-ranking officials” was a big blow to the rebel group.