Regional NPA leader, 2 commanders killed in North Cotabato clash

NORTH COTABATO --- A combined police-military team killed a wanted regional New People’s Army official and two commanders in a brief clash in President Roxas town on Monday morning.

Buenaventura Dawal, executive committee chairman of the NPA’s self-styled Southern Mindanao Regional Command, and two companions, Menandro Villanueva and a certain Alambro, all died on the spot.

Local officials in North Cotabato’s adjoining President Roxas, Arakan and Magpet towns said Villanueva and Alambro were both NPA commanders who had a reputation for excessive collection of monthly “protection money” from farmers in the province

Dawal and Villanueva were wanted for multiple murders, armed robbery and other heinous offenses.

Combined personnel of the Police Regional Office-12, the Army’s 602^nd Brigade and intelligence agents from the 6^th Infantry Division were to serve Dawal and Villanueva a warrant for their arrest in Barangay Sarayan in President Roxas but neutralized them instead when they opened fire, sparking a gunfight that also resulted in the death of Alambro.

The raiding team was armed with an arrest warrant from the Regional Trial Court Branch 9 in Malaybalay City in nearby Bukidnon province, signed by Judge Ma.Theresa Camannong.

Col. Henry Villar, director of the North Cotabato provincial police, said forensic experts found beside the cadavers of the three NPAs an M16 assault rifle, a .30 caliber Carbine rifle and a .45 caliber pistol.

He said the President Roxas municipal police and vigilant local leaders were instrumental in leading the raiding team to the exact location of Dawal and Villanueva in Barangay Sarayan.

The joint police-military mission to peacefully arrest Dawal and Villanueva that turned haywire when they resisted was assisted by units under the military’s Eastern Mindanao Command, according to Villar.