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CAMP OLIVAS, Pampanga, Philippines – Police said on Saturday that labor organizer José Bernardino, who was arrested the day before, was a high-ranking New Popular Army (NPA) officer wanted for rebellion and had a reward of P4.8 million in his head.
Brig. General Valeriano de León, the chief of police for Central Luzon, said Bernardino, 58, was secretary of the white area committee for the NPA region.
It said Bernardino was carrying a pistol and a grenade when he was arrested Friday at Barangay Sapang Maisac in Mexico City by a team from the Police Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG) and the army.
REWARD P4.8-M José Bernardino was briefly shown to reporters at Camp Olivas on Saturday, the day after his arrest in Mexico City, Pampanga province. —TONETTE EARS
With piston members
Police Colonel Amante Daro, regional director of CIDG, said that in 2018 Judge Paul Attolba Jr. of Section 30 of the Regional Court of First Instance issued an arrest warrant for Bernardino in Bayombong, Nueva Vizcaya province.
Bernardino was charged with rebellion in connection with the murder of four soldiers in an encounter in the town of Kasibu in Nueva Vizcaya in 2017.
In 2006, Bernardino, an organizer of transport unions and groups, was arrested with six members of the transport federation United Association of Drivers and Operators Nationwide (Piston) on the charge of illegal possession of explosives.
Some of his former colleagues who now work with the government provided information on his whereabouts and activities, Daro said.
The 4.8 million peso reward would be given to informants and “action agents,” police said.
Bernardino is also on a wanted list issued by the Department of National Defense and the Department of the Interior and Local Government.
‘Ka Bo’
Daro said the arrest was carried out “regularly” and that medical attention would be provided to Bernardino, who had undergone a quadruple heart bypass.
De León also announced the death of Fernando Poblacio Jr., an NPA officer who was also known as “Ka Bo” and “Bert”, in a meeting with police officers who were carrying out the arrest warrant in Barangay Moriones in San José, province of Tarlac. Friday night.
Poblacio was allegedly the NPA’s finance officer in Tarlac and Zambales provinces, according to Major General Alfredo Rosario, head of the army’s Northern Luzon Command.
Police and the military are now searching for the four men who were seen with Poblacio on December 2 at Barangay Labney in the city of Mayantoc, also in Tarlac, Rosario said.
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