New People’s Army frees soldier, policeman in Compostela Valley

TAGUM CITY, Davao del Norte, Philippines—Communist rebels on Thursday freed the soldier and the policeman they took into custody in Laak, Compostela Valley, over a month ago, a military official said.

Capt. Nathaniel Morales, information officer of the Army’s 1003rd Infantry Brigade, said Private First Class Jezreel Culango and Police Officer 1 Ruel Pasion were turned over by the New People’s Army (NPA) to members of a religious group and representatives from the human rights group Karapatan around 1 p.m.

He said the two captives were later fetched by Davao City Vice Mayor Rodrigo Duterte from an undisclosed area in Laak, Morales said.

“They were picked up using a private chopper and brought to Davao City. (Culango) is now in (the military hospital in) Panacan (Davao City) for medical care and stress debriefing while the policeman was brought to Camp Catitipan (the police regional headquarters, also in Davao City) for the same procedure,” Morales told the Inquirer by phone.

The release of the two government men came after the NPA declared a four-day unilateral ceasefire and exactly 35 days after the victims were seized at a rebel checkpoint at a village road in Laak town.

Culango and Pasion were separately seized on Jan. 17, two days after the Communist Party of the Philippines cut short its 21-day ceasefire declaration in connection with the Yuletide Season.

Culango is a member of the 60th Infantry Battalion based in Barangay Sawata in San Isidro, Davao del Norte, and was to visit his girlfriend in Laak town when forced to stop at the roadblock.

Pasion, on the other hand, was aboard another vehicle and was on his way to work at the San Isidro police station when also stopped at the same roadblock, Chief Supt. Jaime Morente, Southern Mindanao police chief, said.

Morente said the rebels manning the roadblock wore camouflage uniforms similar to the ones that soldiers wear.

Laak was a known stronghold of the NPA, he said then, but motorists believed the roadblock was a checkpoint put up by authorities due to the election gun ban.

Senior Supt. Camilo Cascolan, Comnpostela Valley police director, said a number of motorists were stranded at the roadblock as the rebels checked on vehicles and searched for soldiers and policemen.

Obligado said the rebels under the NPA’s Front Committee 34, numbering about 30, had fled toward the hinterland portion of Barangay Imelda, also in Laak, with the captives.

Officials had urged the NPA not to harm the captives amid past cases of abduction of soldiers and policemen, in which, some of the victims had been executed for what the rebels described as “grave and unforgivable offenses against the revolution and the masses.”

The military and the police had launched operations after operation but always failed to secure the soldier and the policeman.