NPA set to release 3 captive policemen to Duterte — report

New People’s Army. INQUIRER FILE PHOTO

SURIGAO CITY, Philippines — The New People’s Army (NPA) is set to release anytime Thursday (Feb. 26) three policemen taken as captives during separate raids in Surigao del Norte in November.

A source from the office of former-Cotabato governor Manny Piñol told the Philippine Daily Inquirer that the NPA would turn the lawmen to Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte in an undisclosed location.

Piñol supports the campaign of Duterte for a shift to a federal system for the Philippines.

Expected to be released are PO1 Jorie Amper, PO3 Democrito Polvosa and PO1 Marichel Contemplo.

The release of the three policemen was supposed to take place last January 18 in deference to Pope Francis’ visit after the rebels twice postponed it, but failed to materialize.

The rebels blamed the military’s alleged refusal to heed the National Democratic Front’s call for a temporary truce.

Amper, assigned with the Malimono town police’s intelligence section, was taken captive at a roadblock manned by NPA in Barangay Tinago of that town on Nov. 12, as he was heading for an assignment.

Polvorosa and Contemplo were taken hostage on Nov. 16 while on their way to a humanitarian mission that the Department of Social Welfare and Development was conducting in Alegria town.

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