NPA releases 2 soldiers of the 39th Infantry Battalion

KIDAPAWAN CITY — The New People’s Army (NPA) freed on Wednesday two soldiers they had snatched in Sultan Kudarat province last Feb. 2 and held for more than two months.

The communist rebels freed Sgt. Solaiman Calocop and Pfc. Samuel Garay, both of the 39th Infantry Battalion, at an undisclosed place in Davao del Sur.

The soldiers were fetched by the Crisis Management Committee, which is headed by Mayor Amirh Musali and Vice Mayor Edwin Bermudez of Columbio town in Sultan Kudarat.

Senior Supt. Raul Supiter, director of the Sultan Kudarat Provincial Police Office, said the soldiers were now in Columbio, according to a text message he had received from Senior Insp. Bernard Francia, chief of the Columbio Municipal Police Station.

“They are now reunited with their respective families,” Supiter told the Inquirer in a mobile phone conversation.

He said the soldiers, both in good health, would undergo debriefing and turned over to their battalion before allowing them to go home.

The families of the soldiers thanked the rebels for not harming their loved ones.

The families also thanked Sultan Kudarat Gov. Pax Mangudadatu, who exerted all means to negotiate the release of the soldiers. /atm