MANILA, Philippines -- Romulo 'Rolly' Kintanar, the powerful commander of the communist New People's Army, was among seven senior insurgents captured in raids in the capital, the military said today.
The arrest -- which came Tuesday on the 19th anniversary of the insurgent army's founding -- was one of the most important single blows ever struck by the military against the 25,000-strong rebel force.
'It clearly demonstrates that we have turned the tide and are winning the war against the communist insurgency,' President Corazon Aquino said in a statement issued by her press secretary.
'The fact that they were arrested on the NPA's 19th anniversary attests to the admirable performance of our armed forces,' she said.
A high-ranking military source said Kintanar had a Soviet passport when he was arrested. The source said the travel document was in a false name but could not say whether it had been used.
Spokesman Yuri Raikov at the Soviet Embassy in Manila said the claim was 'absolute nonsense ... I am sure it is a false report.'
Kintanar was captured with five other officials of the outlawed Communist Party of the Philippines, or CPP, and its military wing, the NPA, during a Tuesday morning raid in the Manila suburb of San Juan, but his identity was not revealed until Wednesday.
Another communist was caught during the afternoon in neighboring Quezon City but authorities said CPP chairman Benito Tiamzon, the rebels' top political figure, narrowly escaped capture during an evening raid.
Defense Secretary Fidel Ramos said the arrests reflected 'a greater degree of teamwork' since the military neutralized the threat from Col. Gregorio Honasan and other malcontents responsible for five coup attempts in the past two years.
'We can now concentrate on the communist threat whereas before we had our hands full from several sides,' he said.
The 38-year-old son of an attorney, Kintanar studied civil engineering at the University of San Carlos on the central island of Cebu before joining the rebel movement.
The Tuesday raid also netted Communist Party Secretary General Rafael Baylosis and Politburo member Benjamin de Vera -- the outlawed organization's second- and seventh-ranked officers, the military said.
Baylosis graduated cum laude from the University of the Philippines in Manila in 1970, majoring in political science.
Manuel Napoleon, believed to be the NPA's chief logistics officer, was caught in the afternoon strike on a safehouse just 100 yards from Quezon City police headquarters.
'This is a product of intense surveillance by the intelligence community,' said armed forces chief Gen. Renato de Villa. 'This is an other big blow to the CPP because these are ranking personalities who have been the object of a nationwide manhunt in the past.'
The raids came just two days after the military announced increased rewards of up to 200,000 pesos ($10,000) -- a fortune for most Filipinos - for the capture of senior communist leaders such as Baylosis and other members of the Communist Party Central Committee.
