SAYS MILITARY CHIEF
NPA ‘glamorizing’ soldier’s abduction
By Katherine Evangelista
INQUIRER.net
First Posted 18:49:00 11/18/2008
Filed Under: Guerrilla activities, Armed conflict
MANILA, Philippines—Military Chief General Alexander Yano accused the communist rebels Tuesday of “glamorizing” their abduction of a wounded soldier in a bid to gain some belligerence status.”
Yano said First Lieutenant Vincente Cammayo, company commander of the Army’s 11th Special Forces Company of the 3rd Special Forces Battalion, was seized by New People’s Army rebels after being wounded during a clash in Monkayo town, Compostela Valley last November 7.
“We feel that it is pure and simple abduction on their part. They want to glamorize the activity into a prisoner of war of thing to gain some belligerence status,” Yano told reporters in an interview.
The communist rebels initially denied having Cammayo in their custody. But in a statement issued Sunday, Rigoberto Sanchez, spokesman of the NPA’s Southern Mindanao Regional Operations Command, admitted to holding the soldier as a “prisoner or war” who will be tried in a rebel court for alleged human rights violations.
But Yano said “there is no serious ideology involved” in Cammayo’s abduction, adding it was merely a “money-making” ploy of the communist guerillas.
Asked if the rebel group had made ransom demands in exchange for Cammayo’s release, Yano said the military has not communicated with the rebels.
“We have not contacted or made any contact with them. If there were claims about negotiations, we don’t negotiate with terrorists,” Yano said. “We will not pay anything.”
He said the military would press abduction and kidnapping charges against the NPA rebels as he vowed to “do everything to get [Cammayo] alive.”
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