Ex-rebel in slay of 3 Antique mayors nabbed

SAN PEDRO CITY-A former New People’s Army (NPA) rebel charged with the murder of three mayors in Antique province was arrested in Calauan town in Laguna province, where he was reportedly living in the last 12 years.

Chief Insp. Roberto Santos, police chief of Calauan, said Winston Cabaya Gilua, 49, was arrested by the police past 9 p.m. Sunday in Barangay Mabacan.

Santos said the police served an arrest warrant for murder issued by Judge Nery Duremdes of the Regional Trial Court Branch 11 of San Jose town in Antique.

Gilua, in the warrant, was named a suspect in the series of NPA attacks on Panay Island in the early 1990s. Among the victims were former San Remigio Mayors Gideon Cabigunda, June Cabigunda and Wilson Antonio.

Gilua was also tagged in the ambush that killed a policeman and an Army soldier also in San Remigio.

In a telephone interview on Monday, Santos said Gilua, who went by the aliases “Ka Waway” and “Ka Nonoy,” used to be a team leader of the Communist Party of the Philippines’ regional party committee and of the NPA’s southern front committee, based on military and police records in Antique.

In 1993, Gilua reportedly left the communist movement when he decided to marry and move with his family to Laguna, Santos said.

Gilua has since worked in a poultry farm in the province.

“The man was trying to live a normal life. He wanted to [surrender] but did not know how,” Santos said.