NPA rebels still holding 400 people hostage in North Cotabato

KIDAPAWAN CITY – Communist rebels have been holding about 400 people as hostages in Barangay Camutan, a remote village of Antipas, North Cotabato for more than 16 hours since early morning Thursday, according to the Central Mindanao Police Office (CMPO).

Supt. Romeo Galgo, speaking for the CMPO, said about 300 New People’s Army stormed Barangay Camutan at 4:00 a.m. and prevented some 80 families from leaving, apparently an attempt to use them as human shields against government forces.

Earlier, 1st Lt. Silver Belvis, spokesperson of the Army’s 39th Infantry Battalion, said at least 600 people managed to get out of Camutan as the rebels were approaching the village.

But Galgo said: “The village of Camutan has about 133 households, only 47 families managed to escape and are now staying at evacuation center in Antipas.”

He said some of the rebels were occupying the sitios of Matias, Gumay and Malapangi, where a firefight has erupted past 7:00 p.m.

Chief Insp. Rolando Dillera, chief of the Antipas Municipal Police Station, said residents of the nearby villages of Agod and Malire had also fled.

Classes in the affected villages were suspended.

Antipas Mayor Egidio Cadungon said there had been no contact yet with the villagers the rebels have been holding.

He said the local government was trying to negotiate with the rebels to release the civilians. /atm