DAVAO CITY, Philippines– Communist guerrillas announced on Sunday they have freed the two soldiers they had seized from President Roxas, North Cotabato.
Isabel Santiago, spokesperson of the New People’s Army’s Herminio Alfonso Command, said in an e-mailed statement to the Philippine Daily Inquirer that Corporal Delfin Largo Sarocam and Private First Class Jayson Burgos Valenzuela of the 57th Infantry Battalion had been released to negotiators in Magpet, North Cotabato.
Sarocam and Valenzuela were on a peace and development mission in President Roxas when seized by NPA rebels on April 14.
Santiago said the release was due to “humanitarian reasons.”
She said the NPA suspended its investigation of the two soldiers for possible violations of Human Rights and International Humanitarian Law “in the course of their participation in the armed counterrevolutionary war of the Philippine government” because of appeals from their families and civil groups.
But Santiago said it did not mean that the soldiers could not be targeted anymore.
“The POWs’ case information shall be archived but their release will not prejudice any future action under justifiable grounds,” she said.
Santiago said Sarocam and Valenzuela would have been freed much earlier had the military stopped its operation in the designated release area.
“The POWs’ release would have been much earlier had these Philippine Army Divisions immediately heeded the clamor of their families, the various people’s organizations and well-meaning individuals. The enemy’s full combat operations designed as a ‘rescue mission’ ended in complete failure and only succeeded in prolonging the POWs’ captivity,” she said.