NPA demands military withdrawal in exchange for captured soldiers

KIDAPAWAN CITY, Philippines – The New People’s Army has demanded the military’s pullout from an area between North Cotabato and Bukidnon before it would release the two soldiers it has been holding captive since April.

“The Herminio Alfonso Command of the NPA wants the military forces to totally move out of several barangay [villages] in President Roxas town in North Cotabato and from the towns of Kitaotao and Kibawi in Bukidnon province,” Fr. Celso Celis, spokesman of the For Release Now Movement (Fren), said last Tuesday.

The areas mentioned were the proposed release site.

Celis said the NPA pledged to release the captives – Private First Class Jayson Burgos Valenzuela and Corporal Delfin Largo Sarocam of the 57th Infantry Battalion – after the pullout.

The two soldiers were seized by NPA rebels late April while they were on their way to a “peace and development mission” in Barangay Datu Inda in President Roxas, North Cotabato.

The NPA said the soldiers were on an anti-communist mission when seized.

Colonel Cesar Sedillo, commander of the Army’s 602nd Infantry Brigade, said he could not comment on the NPA’s demand unless some points were clarified.

“I have to make some clarifications first with Fren’s key leaders before I will issue any statement,” he said.

North Cotabato Governor Emmylou Taliño Mendoza said the provincial crisis committee was working with Fren for the release of the soldiers.

Isabel Santiago, NPA spokesperson, said the release of the captives now depended on the military.

She said that mounting a rescue operation would not do the captives any good.

Santiago assured the families of the soldiers that their rights were being “respected under existing war protocols and the Comprehensive Agreement for the Respect of Human Rights and International Humanitarian Law.”

“We are hoping that the military will give way since the NPA has already made a promise to release them. We have been waiting for the release of my husband long enough” said Jean Sarocam, wife of one of the captured corporal.