NPA leader with P2.6-million bounty falls in Zamboanga

ZAMBOANGA CITY , Philippines  – A ranking leader of the New People’s Army (NPA) with a bounty of P2.6 million was captured along with another senior leader in a joint police-military checkpoint in Katipunan, Zamboanga del Norte, the military said yesterday.

Captured were Maria Luisa Purcray, alias Byul, who was wanted for a string of murder and robbery cases, and Allen Solis, according to Lt. Steffani Cacho, spokesman of the Armed Forces’ Western Mindanao Command (Westmincom).

Purcray, who carried the huge bounty, is the secretary-general of the NPA’s North Central Mindanao Regional Party Committee, while Solis is a medical staffer of the Western Mindanao Regional Party Committee.

Purcray was captured by virtue of a warrant of arrest issued by Judge Zenaida Placer of Regional Trial Court Branch 7 of Bayugan, Agusan del Sur, while Solis was in the order of battle of both the military and police.

Cacho said the two senior NPA leaders were collared while trying to slip through a police-military checkpoint last Tuesday.            – Roel Pareño