THE Philippine Army’s 10th Infantry ‘Agila’ Division announced early today, January 6, 2022, the neutralization of the most important communist figure in Mindanao after a clash early evening yesterday, January 5, 2022, in Sitio Millsite Purok 1, Bgy. Libudon, Mabini, Davao de Oro (formerly Compostela Valley).
M/Gen. Ernesto ‘Jun’ Torres, Agila division commander, in an initial report to Eastern Mindanao (Eastmincom) commander, Lt. General Greg T. Almerol, said elements from the elite Scout Rangers and troops from the 25th Infantry Battalion, 1001st Brigade, under B/Gen. Jesus Durante III, immediately conducted a focus military operation (FMO) after receiving information from a “concerned citizen” about the presence of a huge number of New People’s Army (NPA) terrorists in the area.
It turned out the armed group of about 12 fully-armed terrorists comprised the remnants of the regional headquarters (RHQ) of the Southern Mindanao Regional Party Committee (SMRPC) of the Communist Party of the Philippines, personally under the command of Menandro ‘BOK’ Villanueva.
“Alias BOK was hit in several parts of his body resulting in his demise.
“Troops are still conducting pursuit operations against the fleeing communist terrorists,” Torres reported.
Despite being the highest-ranking CPP official in Mindanao, Villanueva, at the end of his life and
like other slain terrorist leaders before him, was simply left behind by his men who scampered immediately in different directions to save themselves from the pursuing government troops.
Torres added that aside from the body of Villanueva, operating troops also recovered an AK-47 assault rifle and some personal belongings of the fleeing terrorists.
Records from the intelligence community disclosed that Villanueva was the “longest-serving secretary” of the SMRPC, as well as being the current secretary of ‘KomMid’ (Komisyong Mindanao), the CPP highest political organ in the entire Mindanao Island.
Villanueva was also identified as a member of the CPP Military Commission, being the “commanding officer” of its National Operational Command (NOC) that is supervising the national operations of the NPA.
As the highest CPP cadre in Mindanao, Villanueva was also directly in charge of all terrorist operations in the island, Torres said.
Records further show that Villanueva was also not only a member of the CPP Central Committee but more importantly, of its ‘Politburo’ (Political Bureau), whose membership is limited to the party’s elite leadership.
A product of the Ateneo de Manila, Torres said Villanueva was previously a member of the ‘Kabataang Makabayan’ (KM), the youth arm of the CPP and immediately went underground when martial law was declared in 1972.
Villanueva, along with another student activist-turned-NPA, Edgar ‘Edjop’ Jopson, “pioneered” the establishment of the CPP-NPA in Mindanao during the CPP’s early years of expansion in the ‘70s.
In the CPP hierarchy of leadership, Villanueva is being seen as a “future” party chairman, as he already ranks third in its ranks, after CPP founder, Jose Maria Sison and erstwhile CPP chair, Julius Giron.
While Sison refuses to go home to personally attend to CPP affairs, preferring the good life in the Netherlands, Giron, for his part, was killed in an intelligence operation in Baguio City last March 13, 2020.
Durante, in a separate statement, commended the operating troops for the success of the operation, adding:
“The 51 years reign of terror of Menandro Villanueva is finally over.
“His victims were finally given justice. Alias Bok has several warrants of arrests to include multiple murder, double frustrated murder, arson, robbery with intimidation, rebellion, among others.”
CPP now in really serious trouble
The death of Villanueva came on the heels of the death on Christmas eve, December 24, 2021, of another CPP central committee member, Anna Sandra ‘Kaye’ Reyes, also in Davao de Oro, from the hands of the 1001st Brigade, after the military managed to zero-in on the location of the SMRPC’s regional headquarters.
At the time of her neutralization, Reyes was a co-leader of Villanueva at the SMRPC in charge of the White Area Committee.
With the death of Villanueva, the CPP is now facing very serious trouble in Mindanao, the last bastion of its power and influence in the country.
The neutralization of the CPP’s top 3 leaders in Mindanao is expected to further weaken KomMid and spread more demoralization in the remaining ranks of members and supporters.
Villanueva would be the third central committee member in charge of Mindanao party affairs neutralized by the Eastern Mindanao Command in the last quarter of 2021, beginning with the death last October 30, 2021, of Jorge ‘Ka Oris’ Madlos, after an encounter in Impasugong, Bukidnon.
The neutralization of the CPP’s top 3 leaders in Mindanao is expected to further weaken KomMid and spread more demoralization in the remaining ranks of its members and supporters.
Although other CPP personalities are expected to fill-up the leadership vacuum left behind by Villanueva, no one can compare to the depth of his experience that goes back to the earliest days of the CPP in Mindanao.
Torres said with the demise of Villanueva and Reyes, the SMRPC is now left in the hands of couple Eric and May Casilao, who are now the next target of their focus intel-military operation.