POLICE FOIL CPP-NPA TERROR PLANS; 3-MAN HIT SQUAD SLAIN IN LAGUNA ENCOUNTER
Three members of a communist terrorist hit squad based in CALABARZON died in an armed encounter with arresting team of government security personnel in Sta, Rosa City, Laguna on Friday morning.
Reports reaching PNP Chief, Police General Guillermo Lorenzo T Eleazar from Police Brigadier General Felipe Natividad, Acting Director of the PNP Special Action Force indicate that the slain terrorists were on a liquidation mission possibly in the Metro Manila.
Eleazar identified the slain CPP-NPA assassins as ROMMEL RIZZA aka Bernie/ Jomar, commanding officer of RSOG/SPARU of the Southern Tagalog Regional Party Committee and two other SPARU members identified only by their aliases as Blue/Billy, Supply Officer of RSOG, STRPC; and alias Dean, Intelligence Officer of RSOG, STRPC.
Rizza is the subject of two Warrants of Arrest for the crime of Murder and Kidnapping issued by Hon. Rodolfo Obnamia, Jr, Presiding Judge of RTC Branch 64 of Mauban, Quezon.
At 1:20 AM on Friday, the arresting team composed of operatives from the PNP-SAF, AFP Intelligence Team, PRO-4A Regional Mobile Force Battalion, and Sta. Rosa Police Station were approaching the Greenhouse Transient in Buena Rosa Subdivision, Brgy. Macabling, Sta. Rosa, Laguna to serve the Warrant of Arrest against Rizza when they were met by gunfire from the suspects triggering a brief shootout.
The three suspects died on the spot. SOCO examiners recovered the slain CPP-NPA terrorists’ weapons consisting of a 5.56mm Elisco M-16 rifle, and two cal.45 pistols with magazine assemblies loaded with live ammunition.
Natividad told Eleazar that the CPP-NPA is maintaining staging areas and weapons storage in CALABARZON for its urban hit squads to launch attacks in Metro Manila.
According to Natividad, this CPP-NPA SPARU hit squad has deployed several cells in CALABARZON as its staging area for terrorist activities in Metro Manila, particularly for hit jobs on targeted government officials including spokespersons of the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC).