BUTUAN CITY: A New People’s Army (NPA) rebel who is wanted for kidnapping and attempted murder and has been hiding in the Caraga Region for over 20 years was finally arrested Sunday.
Brig. Gen. Pablo Labra II, the director of the Police Regional Office in the Caraga Region (PRO-13), identified the NPA insurgent as Alfredo Oxcellar Pastorete, 74.
Pastorete was arrested by a team composed of the Tagbina Municipal Police Station, the Anti-Kidnapping Group (AKG)-Visayas Unit, and the AKG -Mindanao Field Unit, in Barangay Soriano, Tagbina, Surigao del Sur.
“Pastorete was the subject of an alias warrant of arrest issued by Regional Trial Court, Branch 29 in Toledo City, Cebu under Criminal Case No. TCS-1475 without recommending bail bond,” Labra said in a statement Monday.
Based on their investigation, Labra said Pastorete was one of the suspects in the kidnapping with attempted murder of a certain Expedito Acsoy in Northern Cebu sometime in the late 1980s and early 1990s.
The AKG-Visayas also alleged that the suspect was a District Guerrilla Front-Cebu member, who went into hiding in Surigao del Sur after committing the crime.
“The success of this law enforcement operation is credited to the effective intelligence-driven efforts of the joint operatives of the Philippine National Police,” Labra said.
He added that the arrest of Pastorete added to the increasing list of NPA members who were neutralized in the region
Source: Philippines News Agency
