BY GILBERT P. BAYORAN
A ranking leader of the New People’s Army and three others yesterday died in an encounter with combined Army and police troopers at Hacienda Builder, Brgy. San Pablo, Manapla, Negros Occidental.
Brig. Gen. Inocencio Pasaporte, 303rd Infantry Brigade commander, yesterday identified one of the four slain rebels as Marilyn Badayos, former secretary of the dismantled South East Front of the Komiteng Rehiyonal-Negros/ Cebu/Bohol/Siquijor (KR-NCBS).
Pasaporte also identified the three other killed rebels as Rudy Carbajosa, alias Brod, Finance and Logistic Officer of dismantled Northern Negros Front Sentro De Grabidad Platoon; Rufino Bocaval, alias Simo, NNF Taxation Finance Committee member; as well as Ronilo Desabille, alias Wowie, Propaganda and Education committee member also of NNF.
Prior to her death, Badayos was arrested twice in Dumaguete City in Negros Oriental and Bacolod City, Negros Occidental, and was granted bail, he added.
The firefight between combined forces of the 79IB, Special Action Force commandos, 1st Provincial Mobile Force Company and Regional Mobile Force Battalion 6 and the armed group of Badayos lasted for almost one hour.
Army soldiers and police troopers recovered a .45 caliber pistol, two fragmentation grenades and a .38 caliber revolver with ammunition, assorted propaganda materials and subversive documents from the encounter site, aside from the cadavers of four rebels.
Nobody among the 79IB was hurt in the gun battle, Pasaporte said.
Badayos has a pending arrest warrant for attempted murder issued by San Carlos Regional Trial Court Judge Amy Alabado Avellano, according to Lt. Col. J-Jay Javines, 79IB commander.
The death of Badayos also came after the Philippine Army and elite Special Action Force of the PNP, neutralized two other top female cadres of the KR-NCBS, within a span of one month.
Kerima Lorena Tariman, secretary of the newly-dismantled Northern Negros Front, died on August 20 in an encounter with 79th Infantry Battalion soldiers in Brgy. Kapitan Ramon, Silay City, while Nilda Natan Bertulano, secretary of the South West Front, was captured in a gun battle with SAF commandos on September 14 in Brgy. Tabu, Ilog, all in Negros Occidental.
Maj. Gen. Benedict Arevalo, 3rd Infantry Division commander, said that the four slain rebels were the “brains of extortion scheme” in northern Negros, that victimized big companies, construction firms and private individuals.
On September 28, three remnants of the dismantled Northern Negros Front (NNF) also surrendered to the 79IB in Sagay City, Negros Occidental.
Javines said that the three former rebels also surrendered a 9mm Ingram automatic pistol and .38 caliber revolver with ammunition.
Javines identified the three former rebels through their aliases, for security reasons, as alias Rocky, Finance and Logistic officer of the NNF; alias Baliling, political guide and member of the NNF Educational Staff, and her husband, alias Jamil, also a squad leader of NNF.*
