A suspected New People’s Army leader was arrested by the military and police Saturday morning while getting medical treatment at the Don Carlos Doctors Hospital in Bukidnon.
Armed Forces’ Eastern Mindanao Command spokesman Maj. Ezra Balagtey said the rebel, Elizalde Cañete alias Jinggoy, was being treated for wounds that he allegedly sustained in a recent encounter with government troops in Kitaotao town Thursday.
Balagtey said Cañete was served with a warrant of arrest for multiple murder and arson.
“He has been charged for numerous crimes and atrocities he committed. He was responsible for the death of fish vendor Larry Buenafe in Davao City in May last year during the NPA burning of the Lapanday Facility there. His group was also responsible for the burning of construction equipment used in road projects in Paquibato in Davao City,” Balagtey said.
The rebel leader was previously captured in 2010 in Montevista town in Compostela Valley province but he jumped bail in 2013.
“The arrest of the rebel leader and his eventual prosecution will now give justice to the victims of his many atrocities particularly, to the late Larry Buenafe who was just peacefully earning a living when he was killed by an NPA-laid landmine,” Eastern Mindanao Command chief Gen. Benjamin Madrigal Jr. said.
Balagtey said Cañete heads the Pulang Bagani Company 1 of the NPA’s Southern Mindanao Regional Command, which covers Bukidnon, Davao del Norte, and Davao City.