SEIZED. A police officer inspects a sack containing bomb-making ingredients confiscated inside the house of Jun Cruz Navales (inset), a suspected member of the communist New People’s Army in Barangay Inac, Magpet, North Cotabato on Wednesday (Jan. 29, 2020). Former comrades of the suspect who surrendered to authorities last year tipped off authorities on the existence of the bomb-making materials at the latter’s house, according to the police. (Photos courtesy of Magpet MPS)
COTABATO CITY – Police arrested an alleged member of the communist New Peoples’ Army (NPA) and seized ammunition and bomb-making components during a law enforcement operation in Magpet town, North Cotabato on Wednesday evening.
Major Judgie Barotas, Magpet town police chief, identified the suspect as Jun Cruz Navales, whose house in Barangay Inac, Magpet, was subjected to a court-ordered search.
Seized during the 10:45 p.m. operation in Navales' house, police said, were bomb-making materials that include a C-4 Claymore mine, 40 pieces of ammunition for an M14 rifle, and a shirt printed with words “CPP-NPA”.
Barotas alleged that Navales was an active member of the NPA operating in the hinterlands of Magpet.
“He was linked to the roadside bombing of a police patrol car in Magpet last year that left one police officer killed and two others wounded,” Barotas said of the suspect, who vehemently denied he owns the ammunition and bomb-making components.
Navales, however, admitted he was an NPA member and involved in the abduction and detention of Police Officer 1 Bristol Catalan in 2017.
On Aug. 16, 2017, Catalan was snatched by the NPAs in Purok 4, Barangay Katipunan, Kidapawan City, for his unspecified crimes.
He was released on Dec. 4 of the same year to a representative of the Diocese of Kidapawan after some four months in captivity.
Barotas said before Navales was arrested, he was placed under surveillance based on the information presented by former NPAs who earlier surrendered to the government.
He is now detained at the Magpet police custodial facility. The NPA, together with the Communist Party of the Philippines, is listed as a terrorist organization by the governments of the United States, European Union, United, Kingdom, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and the Philippines. (PNA)
