POLICE arrested an alleged former leader of the communist New People’s Army (NPA) in Cebu who, authorities said, also ran a private army in northern Cebu.
Sixty three-year-old Eduardo Sacamay was nabbed in a joint operation conducted by the Cebu Provincial Intelligence Branch (PIB) and the Provincial Mobile Force Company (PMFC) led by Supt. Rene Kyamko.
Sacamay had two standing warrants of arrest for murder issued by Judge Suceso Arcamo of RTC Branch 47 in Tagbilaran City Bohol.
He also faced a murder charge before Judge Hermes Montero of Branch 49 Toledo City Cebu.
According to PIB operative Senior Insp. Alejandro Batobalonos, a surveillance operation was conducted against Sacamay after copies of his warrants were furnished to the police.
Sacamay was tracked down by the operatives at the construction site of his new house in Barangay Kasambagan, Cebu City.
Police are validating reports that Sacamay was also a member of a politician’s private army in northwest Cebu.
In an interview with reporters, Sacamay denied having killed anyone and jokingly added that he was only capable of killing a rooster.
“I did not kill a person even once. I do not even want to kill animals except perhaps a rooster — that I can do,” Sacamay said in Cebuano while also denying that he was an NPA member.
But a check on his background showed that he once faced 20 warrants of arrest for murder, five for attempted murder, one for homicide, one for arson, and one for robbery.
All these charges were later downgraded to simple rebellion as he was supposedly a member of the NPA.
Sacamay was detained for six years at the Cebu Provincial Detention Rehabilitation Center (CPDRC) and released from jail in 2008.
Upon his arrest this week, he denied knowledge of the three murder cases lodged against him insisting that he was only an organizer of a farmers’ group who even supported the election of President Rodrigo Duterte in May 2016.
For his part, Col. Medel Aguilar spokesperson of the Armed Forces of the Philippines Central Command told Cebu Daily News that the military will check on Sacamay’s alleged rebel background.
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