NPA releases abducted barangay chief, 2 others in Mindoro

CITY OF CALAPAN — Three of four people who were reportedly kidnapped by members of the New People’s Army (NPA) in Bansud town in Oriental Mindoro province Friday night were released on Saturday, according to the police.

READ: NPA rebels ‘abduct’ village chief, 3 others, in Oriental Mindoro

Lt. Col. Socrates Faltado, information officer of the Mimaropa Police Regional Office, said Peter Delos Santos, chairman of Barangay Malo in Bansud, and wife Ruth, and Rocky Boy Bueta, aka Ricky Capillo, were released at about 6 a.m. Saturday — or a few hours after they were allegedly abducted around 8 p.m. Friday in Malo.

Another man, Raymundo Malupa, a member of the Citizen Armed Force Geographical Unit Active Auxiliary, is still being held by the captors as of this writing.

In an interview with Bansud police, Delos Santos aid he and his wife were inside their house when they were approached by more or less nine armed men who forcibly took the barangay official’s .45-caliber pistol.

He and the others, who were also kidnapped from their homes, were taken by the armed men to a grassy area of Sitio Pay-Pay Ama.

Faltado said the alleged “extortion and kidnapping” was carried out by around 10 suspected rebels, one of them a woman, clad in military uniforms.

A report said Delos Santos is a known supporter of the incumbent and re-electionist Bansud Mayor Angel Saulong.

On Thursday, Saulong told police that, while conducting a campaign rally at Malo, he received a text message from the NPA demanding payment of a permit-to-campaign.

He said the rebels also threatened to harm the candidates running for the May elections campaigning in the area. /atm