NPA leader implicated in Balweg murder falls

SAN FERNANDO CITY, La Union — A ranking officer of the New People’s Army (NPA) implicated in the 1999 killing of priest-turned-rebel Conrado Balweg was arrested by a combined police-Air Force team in Sudipen town in this province before dawn yesterday.

Arrested was Clarence Sibayan Austin, 39, said to be the regional officer of the Ilocos-Cordillera Regional Committee on the Communist Party of the Philippines-NPA.

Senior Superintendent Paterno Hernandez, regional intelligence and investigation chief, said Austin was allegedly one of those who gunned down Balweg on Dec. 31, 1999 in Malibcong, Abra.

Austin, according to Chief Superintendent Arturo Lomibao, Ilocos police director, was arrested by virtue of a warrant issued by Judge Arturo Buenaventura of the Bangued Regional Trial Court.

Austin will be turned over to the Bangued, Abra police to face the charges.

According to accounts, Balweg was sipping coffee with his sister Aida at the kitchen of their ancestral home in Barangay Bangilo, Malibcong town when shots rang out from under the bamboo floor, fatally hitting Balweg.

After the incident, the NPA owned up to the killing, saying its "people’s court" had found him guilty of various "crimes against the people."

Balweg’s brother Jovencio, said to be the leader of the NPA’s Agustin Begnalen Command, also made the same pronouncement.

On Jan. 4, 2000, the Abra police filed charges against Jovencio and five alleged NPA guerrillas, namely, Procopio Tauro, Florece Baluga, Maco Guinnay, Marcelo Dao-ayan and Lito Laguicao, as well as several John Does. — Myds Supnad, Vic Alhambra Jr. and Artemio Dumlao