BUTUAN CITY—New People’s Army (NPA) rebels on Saturday seized the mayor of Lingig town in Surigao del Sur and his two security aides, police said.
Chief Supt. Reynaldo Rafal, Caraga police chief, said policemen later clashed with the rebels in Boston, Davao Oriental but there has been no report of casualties on either side.
Rafal said Mayor Henry Dano and his two security aides, who are still captive as of 3 p.m. yesterday, were also unharmed during the clash.
The mayor, he said, was not wounded during the rescue attempt.
At least 30 rebels, who posed as agents of the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI), arrived in Dano’s house in Poblacion, Lingig on board three vans past 6 a.m.
Rafal said the rebels were able to convince a household help to open the gate.
“When they finally got inside, the rebels disarmed the security aides and snatched the mayor inside his home,” he said.
Before fleeing, the rebels also took Lingig’s security escorts at gunpoint, Rafal said.
Dano became the second Lingig mayor to have been abducted in two years.
In May last year, Dano’s predecessor, former mayor Roberto Luna Jr. and his two military escorts were also abducted by NPA rebels for their alleged crimes against the communist movement.
They were freed two weeks later following what a local rebel leader said was Luna’s “voluntary admission of culpability and issuance of a public apology” for his supposed crimes.
Rafal said as of yesterday afternoon, there was still no communication with the abducted mayor and his security escorts.
He said the provincial government of Surigao del Sur had convened its crisis committee to “find ways to open talks with the rebels.”
Police, however, would proceed with plans to rescue the mayor.
Rebels are also keeping captive four jail guards that they seized during a rescue of a comrade in Bukidnon.
Being held captive by the rebels are jail guards Erico Llamazares, Murphy Tujog, Rogelio Beguntes and Roland Bajuyo. Franklin A. Caliguid, Inquirer Mindanao