BY SONY SUDARIA & OSCAR LEDESMA. MDNN News Bureau
CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY – The death of Jorge Madlos, alias “Ka Oris,” has sparked alert level to all police units in the region, sensing retaliation from the communist side due to the death of its national leader, a police official said Tuesday morning.
In an interview with a local radio station here, Lt. Col. Michelle Olaivar, the police region 10 spokesperson said the PNP regional command has already sent instructions to all units in the region to be extra vigilant as possible retaliation might happen anytime.
George Madlos, 72, widely known as “Ka Oris, the most elusive leader of the CPP/NDF/NPA was killed in a 30-minute gunbattle with the armed forces in the hinterlands of Sitio Gabunan, Dumalaguing, Impasugong, Bukidnon.
Another fatality from the rebel side aside from Madlos, was a woman known to be his medical aide.
Their bodies, the police official said, were found when the military conducted clearing operations on the battlefield, right after more than 20 members of the rebel group scampered to different directions and escaped unharmed.
“Madlos placed landmines in his perimeters, an old tactic that even a plebe is already well aware of. At 72, murkiness must have done George Madlos in as he missed the fact that troopers are like war dogs. They are ready to pounce on prey hiding in crevices of even the roughest terrains. Besides, Air Force support is always handy to clear hazards leading to enemy territories,” Brigadier General Ferdinand Barandon, commander of the 403rd Infantry ‘Peacemaker’ Brigade (403rd Bde) Philippine Army said.
Barandon said there were around 30 NPA rebels with “Ka Oris” but they all fled when skirmishes erupted, prompting the sickly Madlos and his woman aide unable to defend themselves and died in the firefight.
“Ka Oris,” Barandon said, was recently honored by the revolutionary arm struggle as a high-ranking commander of the CPP-NPA not only in Mindanao but the whole country as well, as he was the lone senior officer left in the communist party rebel group.
All of Madlos’ contemporaries in the revolutionary movement have all died. He was left to become the spokesperson of the National Operations Command and member of the CPP-NPA’s Executive Committee-Political Bureau known to them as Execom-Politburo
Major General Romeo Brawner Jr, commander of the army’s 4th Infantry ‘Diamond’ Division (4ID) said they are now tracking Madlos wife Myrna Sularte alias Maria Malaya, secretary of the NPA’s North Eastern Mindanao Regional Committee, making her the highest-ranking rebel leader in the Caraga region.
Brawner reiterated his call to the NPA rebels to surrender to the Duterte government as their time is up. The government is hell bent on ending them, and if they are caught or captured in encounters, they will be jailed and receive no benefits at all.
“But if they are captured in an encounter, they will be jailed outright with no benefits. Instead, they will face criminal cases in court,” Brawner concluded.
