‘Ex-communist rebel’ arrested while working as guard at QC subdivision

A suspected ex-communist rebel who has been working as a security officer of a Quezon City subdivision was arrested over the weekend after several years in hiding.

Benigno Umbay, 47, was apprehended at his house on Kalayaan Street, Barangay Batasan, on Saturday morning, almost six years after he was tagged in robbery and homicide cases in Ilocos Sur.

The Criminal Investigation and Detection Group said Umbay, who also went by the name, Carlos Umbay, was once a communist rebel and member of the Northern Command Committee.

The suspect was arrested by virtue of arrest warrants issued by Judge Nida Bringas Alejandro of Cabugao, Ilocos Sur, for robbery in band and robbery with homicide, a non-bailable offense.

Senior Supt. Romeo Baleros, chief of the CIDG Detective Special Operation Unit, said the suspect had been hiding for several years after being charged for his offenses dating back to 2008.

Umbay has been working as a security officer in an undisclosed subdivision in Quezon City, where high ranking officials were supposedly residing.

Chief Insp. Elizabeth Jasmin, CIDG spokesperson, said some of the fake IDs recovered from the suspect, which he used in his job had the name of a dead brother in a bid to hide his real identity.

“He used these fake IDs in his job as a security officer, which had the name of his dead brother as an alias,” the police official said.

Umbay was arrested at around 5:45 a.m., Saturday, at his house in Barangay Batasan by operatives of the CIDG and the Batasan police station.

Upon questioning, the suspect allegedly admitted to being involved in a 1990 attack on the Cabugay police station and the killing of a lieutenant, Lito Madarang, in 1985.

Umbay is detained at the CIDG, although he will be turned over to the jurisdiction of the Ilocos Sur regional trial court this week, according to Jasmin.