DAVAO CITY, Philippines—The New People’s Army (NPA) on Saturday said it was holding five captives, including four who are village officials in Loreto town, Agusan del Sur province, running for reelection but who had been tagged by communist guerrillas as abusive.
In an e-mail statement, Aris Francisco, spokesperson of the NPA in Agusan del Sur and nearby provinces, said the captives were all militiamen.
At least four are officials of a village in Loreto who are seeking reelection on October 28.
Francisco tagged the captives as “prisoners of war (POWs).” He said the five were taken into custody by the NPA after a raid on Thursday on a militia detachment under the supervision of the Army’s 26th Infantry Battalion in Barangay Mansanitas.
At least two shotguns and a .357 cal. revolver had been seized from the captives, Francisco said.
Village officials
Francisco identified the prisoners as Lito Andalique, chair of Barangay Mansanitas, and village councilors Marvin Bantuasan, Crisanto Piodos and Balaba Andalique. The fifth prisoner has been identified as militiaman Pepe Subla.
Francisco said the rebels also killed at least five soldiers during a clash in the village. The Army sent two helicopters that “dropped 14 bombs in the community.”
The NPA spokesperson said the helicopters “secured their (Army) fatalities.”
Lt. Gen. Rainier Cruz III, head of the Eastern Mindanao Command, earlier said the guerrillas abducted six candidates for village positions in Loreto but wrongly identified the place of the incident as Barangay Sabud.
In Cruz’s list, the names of the five victims are similar to what Francisco gave. The sixth victim, according to Cruz, was Gina Bantuasan. It was not clear whether she was related to the other Bantuasan.
Cruz also reported that a soldier was injured in the clash that took place during a pursuit operation against the guerrillas.
Interfering in polls
He said the abduction was obviously the NPA’s way of trying to influence the outcome of the barangay elections by harassing candidates hostile to the guerrillas.
As early as September, the military said communist rebels started talking prospective candidates into securing permits to campaign in rebel-influenced areas across the country. The candidates are being asked to pay for the permits, Cruz said.
In at least six villages of Kidapawan City, according to authorities, the guerrillas are demanding that candidates give regular contributions to the NPA.
Candidates for the post of barangay chair in villages of Marbel, Linangkob, San Roque, Katipunan, Sto. Nino, Gayola, New Bohol and Sikitan had been asked by guerrillas to pay P500 per month if they win while winning candidates in the race for barangay councils should give P200 per month.
Cruz said candidates who disagreed with the NPA’s terms were being harassed.
Francisco said Thursday’s abduction was part of guerrilla offensive in retaliation for the killing of two peasant leaders, the detention and alleged torture of two indigenous teens and harassment of communities in Loreto.
No justification
Cruz had said there was no justification, however, for guerrillas to target civilians as well.
“Nothing can be so farther from the truth than the far-fetched claim by Cruz that the arrest of the barangay officials was the NPA’s act of involving itself in the forthcoming reactionary exercise of barangay elections,” Francisco said.
He said the victims were “not ordinary civilians” as they are reelectionist village officials and militiamen.
“[They are] legitimate targets of the NPA. The POWs are psychological warfare agents who banned the masses from going to their farms and forced them to remain at the village centers in a blatant attempt to control their movement,” Francisco said.
“These POWs have campaigned hard against the NPA, harassed peasant leaders and strongly endorsed the entry of palm oil and mining projects—projects that will eventually dislocate the masses and deprive the lumad of their ancestral domain,” he said. Allan Nawal, Inquirer Mindanao