DAVAO CITY – The Philippine military rejected Tuesday demands by communist rebels for a cease-fire to allow the safe release of two captured government soldiers in the southern province of Bukidnon, officials told the regional newspaper Mindanao Examiner.
Army Capt. Alberto Caber, a spokesman for the Eastern Mindanao Command, said troops were dispatched to track down and rescue the soldiers – Privates Marnel Cinches and Jerrel Yurong – who are members of the 8th Infantry Battalion.
Caber said Maj. Gen. Aurelio Baladad, the regional military chief, has ordered security forces to pursue New People’s Army rebels who are holding the two soldiers. “These operations contribute to the peace and security of the people and its communities in the region,” Caber quoted Baladad as saying.
He said Lt. Col. Lennon Babilonia, commander of the 8th Infantry Battalion, also rejected the NPA demands for an immediate truce in Bukidnon, saying, “basically, we do not negotiate with terrorists.”
Both Cinches and Yurong were unarmed and on their way to the village of Buntungon in Impasug-ong town when rebels captured them on August 22 and declared the pair as prisoners of war.
Caber said the NPA has kidnapped at least 21 soldiers the past four years in eastern Mindanao alone and used them as political propaganda.
Rebel spokesman Allan Juanito said the NPA demand for a cease-fire is a condition for the safe release of the prisoners. The NPA has been fighting for decades now for the establishment of a separate communist state in the country. (Mindanao Examiner)
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