Ranking NPA leader slain in Butuan City clash
CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY—The Philippine Army said they were expecting more dissensions within the ranks of the communist New People’s Army (NPA) in the Caraga and Northern Mindanao regions following the death of its top ranking leader on Wednesday.
Myrna Sularte, more known as Maria Malaya in the underground movement, was slain in a clash with soldiers of the Army’s 30th Infantry Battalion on Wednesday afternoon in Barangay Pianing in Butuan City, the military said.
Lt. Col. Francisco Garello, public affairs chief of the Army’s 4th Infantry Division (4ID) based here, described Sularte, 73, as a “top NPA leader in [the] Caraga [region].”
Garello said Sularte and her team of fighters fell into the dragnet of Army soldiers sent on a combat operation beginning on Wednesday morning in the hinterlands of Butuan City where the NPA’s Northeastern Mindanao Regional Committee (NEMRC) was holed up.
The operation resulted in three separate clashes. Sularte, widow of the late Jorge “Ka Oris” Madlos, was killed in the third encounter, which erupted on Wednesday afternoon in Sitio Tagulahi.
“It is unfortunate that Malaya has suffered the same tragic fate as her husband, Ka Oris, and their son, Vincent. We have offered them the path of peace countless times, yet they have never listened or given us a chance,” said Brig. Gen. Michele Anayron Jr., 4ID commander.
‘Final straw’
Anayron hoped that Sularte’s death “will be the final straw” for the remaining rebels in the Caraga region to surrender and start a new life through the government’s reintegration program.
Caraga is composed of the provinces of Agusan del Norte, Agusan del Sur, Dinagat Islands, Surigao del Norte and Surigao del Sur.
When he assumed as 4ID commander on Jan. 28, Anayron offered the hand of peace to rebels, vowing that the Army would work with other national government agencies to address the root causes of poverty that is fueling the insurgency.
Brig. Gen. Arsenio DC Sadural, commander of the 901st Infantry Brigade, said Sularte was the secretary of NEMRC and a member of the political bureau of the Communist Party of the Philippines.
Her late husband, Ka Oris, headed the NPA’s National Operations Command, and was killed in October 2021 during an encounter with government forces in Bukidnon province.
