For 3rd time, NPA returns valuables it seized from Maasin police

NPA rebels turn over the cash and personal belongings of policemen of the Maasin Police Station in Iloilo to reporters of the Aksyon Radyo Iloilo on July 10, 2017. (Photo courtesy of JunJun Sornito of Aksyon Radyo Iloilo)

ILOILO CITY — A radio station has turned over to the police the personal items seized by communist rebels during their raid of a police station in Maasin town, Iloilo, in June.

Cash amounting to at least P12,970, seven mobile phones, personal documents and pieces of jewelry were handed over to the Iloilo Provincial Police Office on Monday.

These items were owned by policemen and were taken by the New People’s Army rebels when they raided the police station in Maasin on June 16.

These were returned by the NPA on Saturday to Aksyon Radyo Iloilo anchors Junjun Sornito and Mario Gelongo in a hinterland area in Leon town in Iloilo, the radio station reported.

The rebels who introduced themselves as members of the Napoleon Tumagtang Command of NPA in Panay earlier also turned over laptop computers, cash and personal belongings to radio stations Bombo Radyo Iloilo and RMN Iloilo.

But the rebels kept the 15 firearms including 11 M-16 rifles and four hand guns, ammunition and radios among others they took from the police station.

Senior Supt. Marlon Tayaba, Iloilo provincial police director, said the recent actions of the rebels were merely attempts to “gain public sympathy and media mileage.”

Tayaba said the turning over of the items did not negate that “what the rebels did was plain robbery.”  SFM/rga