[Inquirer] Charges of illegal possession of firearms and explosives were filed against six communist militants who were captured in Mabinay town, Negros Oriental on Saturday.Myles Albasin, one of the arrested suspects, admitted she and her companions were in a remote community in the village of Luyang to discuss poverty with farmers there. She denied that the firearms taken by soldiers belonged to them. She said the guns belonged to the "organization," but declined to elaborate.
Arrested with her were Carlo Ybañez, 18, Mandaue City, Cebu; Ajomar Indico, 29 and Randel Hermino, 19, of Himamaylan City in Negros Occidental; Joel Baylosis, 18, of Mabinay and Bernard Guillen, 18, of Kabankalan City, Negros Occidental.
Military spokesman Darrel Banes said that soldiers captured the suspects on their way to Mabinay to check on reports of extortion by insurgents. The soldiers were met with gunfire, and they returned fire. After a 45-minute battle, troops captured the suspects, including Albasin.
The Nagkahiusang Kusog sa Estudyante, a leftist student organization in UP Cebu, said it refused to accept the military’s "publicity stunt." On its Facebook page, the group said Albasin was “steadfast in the struggle of the exploited and oppressed masses.”
It said the “heightening crisis” was forcing people, especially the youth, into taking up “an advanced form of struggle.”
Meanwhile, in Agusan del Norte, the military arrested a couple allegedly behind the recruitment of minors into the NPA. Military spokesperson Teresita Ingente said Aladin Apolinaria and his wife, Luzviminda, were arrested in the village of Mahayahay on Saturday. Ingente tied the couple to the NPA's Guerrilla Front 16.