CAGAYAN DE ORO, Philippines – For three years, Myrna Sularte, the highest-ranking New People’s Army (NPA) official known in Mindanao, crisscrossed provinces across Caraga and other Mindanao regions, dodging military patrols, slipping through provincial borders, and vanishing into remote strongholds before troops could close in.
Military intelligence reports placed the rebel leader, widely known by her nom de guerre Maria Malaya, in the outskirts of Butuan City in late January. Soldiers moved in, tracking her movements for weeks.
By Wednesday, February 12, there was no more running. The military closed in, and Malaya, the septuagenarian leader of the Communist Party of the Philippines-New People’s Army (CPP-NPA) in northeastern Mindanao, was killed in a gun battle.
The body, recovered in an outlying village of Butuan after the encounter between state forces and an armed group, was identified by her sister through a birthmark and bullet wound, the military said on Thursday, February 13.
Brigadier General Arsenio Sadural, commander of the Army’s 901st Infantry Brigade, confirmed in a press conference that his men had killed Sularte in an encounter at Sitio Imelda, Barangay Pianing, Butuan.
He said that aside from the birthmark recognized by her sister, former rebels who had been under Sularte’s command also identified her.
A scar on her left shoulder from a gunshot wound sustained in a November 2023 encounter with government soldiers was also visible, the military commander said, confirming that the body was indeed that of the widow of the late rebel leader Jorge Madlos, also known as Ka Oris.
Ka Oris had served as the spokesman of the National Democratic Front (NDF) in Mindanao and as the NPA’s top leader. He was killed in a disputed encounter with soldiers on October 29, 2021, in Impasugong, Bukidnon.
Brigadier General Michele Anayron, commander of the Army’s 4th Infantry Division, earlier said former NPA rebels also identified Sularte by her distinctive features – missing front teeth and white hair.
A P5.6-million reward had been placed on Malaya’s head, but Sadural declined to discuss details out of respect for the slain rebel leader’s grieving family.
Malaya had long been wanted for multiple criminal charges, including rebellion, murder, multiple murder, and frustrated murder, among others.
Sadural said the military had been trailing Malaya’s armed group since January 29 in the vicinity of Butuan. For the past three years, she had been highly mobile across the Caraga provinces and other parts of Mindanao, he said.
On Wednesday morning, two skirmishes took place in Barangay Pianing, particularly in Sitio Tagulahi. A third occurred past noon in Sitio Imelda, leading to Malaya’s death following an intense exchange of gunfire.
According to the military, Malaya, a native of Barangay Salvacion, Bayugan City, Agusan del Sur, was recruited into the communist movement in 1977, shortly after earning a Bachelor of Science in Agricultural Technology degree at the Northern Mindanao Institute of Science and Technology (now Caraga State University).
Two years later, Malaya, also fondly called “Iyay” or “Imang,” became secretary of the North Eastern Mindanao Regional Committee of the CPP-NPA, a leadership position she held for 26 years.
Lieutenant General Luis Rex Bergante, commander of the Eastern Mindanao Command (Eastmincom), said Malaya’s death marked the “conclusion of countless atrocities perpetrated by the communist terrorist group that span decades, particularly in the Caraga region.”
Bergante said that in recent months, authorities had attempted to persuade her to surrender peacefully, but those efforts failed. Her death came about a week after 232 former NPA rebels in Mindanao surrendered and laid down their firearms. – Rappler.com