Philippines captures senior communist rebel leader

Wed, 05 Jan 2011

Manila - Philippine security forces wounded and captured a senior communist rebel leader, a regional military spokesman said Wednesday.

Tirso Alcantara, overall commander of communist rebels in the main northern island of Luzon, was taken into custody late Tuesday in Lucena City, 105 kilometers south-east of Manila.

Alcantara was the most senior communist rebel to be arrested in the Philippines in recent years. His capture came a day after the end of an 18-day Yuletide ceasefire between government troops and leftist guerrillas.

Army Colonel Generoso Bolina said Alcantara was shot by police officers and soldiers when he tried to evade arrest at a checkpoint in the village of Ibabang Iyam.

"Tirso Alcantara resisted arrest and attempted to draw his pistol that resulted in a commotion and the wounding of the subject in his buttocks," he said.

The government troops also captured Alcantara's aide who was identified as Apolinario Cuarto.

The arresting team seized weapons including two pistols and two hand grenades from the suspects, Bolina added.

The Philippines and the communist rebels have agreed to resume later in the month peace negotiations which have been stalled since August 2005.

Communist rebels have been fighting the government since the late 1960s, making the movement one of the longest-running leftist insurgencies in Asia.

Source: Earth Times.
Link: http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/news/360757,senior-communist-rebel-leader.html.