Rizalde Cañete alias Ka (Comrade) Jinggoy was wounded during the 4 p.m. clash in Barangay Lorenzo Sarmiento, Laak town, Brig. Gen. Eduardo del Rosario, commander of the 1003rd Infantry Brigade, said.

Cañete has been undergoing treatment at the Davao Medical Center in Davao City for gunshot wounds as of Sunday and “is in stable condition,” according to Senior Supt. Aaron Aquino, Compostela Valley police chief.

Saturday’s encounter between the Army’s 8th Special Forces Company and some 20 communist guerrillas of the NPA’s Front Committee 2 under Cañete also left three rebels dead and a soldier slightly wounded, Maj. Randolph Cabangbang, Spokesperson of the military’s Eastern Mindanao Command, said.

Del Rosario said that as of Sunday, Cañete was being operated on by DMC physicians and that his condition was “not serious.”

“Let this incident be a call to his (Cañete’s) men still in the hills to lay down their arms so that we can have peace,” Del Rosario said.

The 23-year old rebel leader has been involved in some of the most high-profile attacks by the NPA in the region. According to his family, he has been with the NPA for over a decade.

He was tagged in the abduction of soldiers and policemen in the province in recent years, among them the kidnapping of Army Lt. Vicente Cammayo in 2008 and the abduction of Cpl. Dominador Alegre in late 2009.

His group was also believed to be behind the assault on a gold-processing plant owned by Monkayo town Mayor Manuel Brillantes Jr., in 2007 that resulted in the deaths of two company guards, police said.

“(He is also facing) two counts of murder and frustrated murder before the 1st Municipal Circuit Trial Court in Compostela Valley,” said Cabangbang.

Cabangbang said Cañete’s capture was a “victory made possible by the help of civilians who provided vital information that led to the success of the operation.”

Last December, Cañete’s father Conrado, 57, was abducted and murdered by unidentified gunmen while attending a village fiesta several kilometers from their home in Monkayo town.

The family had accused the military of killing the Cañete patriarch, a charge the military denied. -- INQUIRER