Duterte willing to meet with NPA on release of soldiers

Mayor Rodrigo Duterte FILE PHOTO

DAVAO CITY, Philippines – Mayor Rodrigo Duterte has said he will go to the extent of meeting New People’s Army (NPA) leader Leoncio Pitao alias Parago to secure the release of soldiers captured by the guerrillas in June.

“I call on the NPA to hasten the release of their prisoners because of the suffering it has caused the families,” Duterte said in a press briefing Saturday night.

“Let us be clear, let us establish a definite period because the families are already getting very restless,” Duterte said, addressing the NPA, four days after the fathers and brother of captured soldiers Private Martiniano Pasigas Jr., 22, and Pfc Ronald Gura, 26, sought his help.

Duterte said he has been negotiating with the NPA through channels and would even be willing to go to the area to talk with them personally if they could not immediately agree on certain terms or concessions.

“We’re currently negotiating,” Duterte said.

“If we can’t agree on their terms, because it’s very difficult, I am willing to go there to talk to them personally,” he added.

He said it has always been his policy not to agree on any arms or money concessions with the Communist rebels waging a four-decade-old war against the government.

Gura and Patigas were among the five soldiers captured by the NPA in Mapula village, Paquibato district on June 17.