Gov't troops arrest 7 RPA-ABB men
Government troops have arrested and disarmed members of a former rebel group suspected of supporting candidates in Laua-an town in Antique.
Troops under the Army's 79th Infantry Battalion arrested seven members of the Revolutionary Proletarian Army-Alex Boncayao Brigade (RPA-ABB) in Barangay Latason around 8 km from the town proper of Laua-an at dawn last Friday.
Capt. Lowen Gil Marquez, chief of the Civil Relations Service of the Armed Forces in Western Visayas, identified the RPA-ABB members as Rodrigo Pacheco, Juanito Vicente, Roy Alejo, Esporsado Rey Agapito, Joel Bolivar, Walter Agbagon and Domingo Anacleto.
The soldiers recovered two M-16 rifles, three .38 caliber pistols, one homemade shotgun and a locally-made Ingram sub-machine gun.
Lt. Col. Nestor Porlucas, 79IB commander, said in a telephone interview, that the seven were released after 12 hours because they could not be detained due to the existing peace pact between the RPA-ABB and government signed in December 2000.
Their firearms were, however, confiscated pending verification if these are part of the firearms allowed to be carried by 100 RPA-ABB members nationwide as provided in the peace agreement.
The RPA-ABB broke ties with the New People's Army (NPA) in the early 1990s over ideological and political differences.
Porlucas said the seven were arrested while the soldiers were conducting operations to check on complaints filed before the Laua-an police station that armed men were going to houses of residents in hinterland villages and threatening civilians to support particular candidates.
The armed men who admitted their membership to the RPA-ABB were arrested at a house of a barangay councilor identified only as Bernabe. They did not resist when the soldiers accosted them and confiscated their firearms, said Porlucas.
Laua-an is among the 79 towns and cities in Western Visayas as election areas of concern because of previous election-related violence.
The Philippine National Police and Armed Forces of the Philippines have arrested 83 persons for violating the gun ban from January 14 to April 9.
Sixty-nine of the those arrested were civilians and the rest were security guards, government officials and members of the AFP and PNP. Law-enforcers have filed 78 cases in courts against the violators.
The PNP and AFP have also recovered 98 firearms, including eight high-powered rifles and four grenades.
Most of the firearms were recovered in Negros Occidental (31), followed by Iloilo (16) and Aklan (14).