CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY – New People’s Army rebels have released on Friday two more soldiers they held as prisoners of war ahead of the possible resumption of peace talks with Manila next year.
The two soldiers – Pvts. Marnel Cinches and Jerrel Yurong – were freed in Bukidnon province in northern Mindanao, but the communist rebels are still holding three more policemen PO3 Democrito Polvorosa, PO1 Marichel Contemplo and PO1 Junrie Amper in the restive region, and Compostela Valley provincial jail warden Jose Coquilla.
The rebel group said the soldiers were freed due to humanitarian reason following their capture in August this year in Bukidnon’s Impasug-ong town. The Eastern Mindanao Command and the 4th Infantry Division have not issued any statement about the safe release of the soldiers.
The NPA earlier released two other prisoners – Pfc. Alvin Ricarte and Cpl. Benjamin Samano –to Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte, who helped negotiate for their freedom in Compostela Valley province.
The two soldiers were taken captive during a rebel raid at a banana plantation owned by Sumitomo Fruits Corporation earlier in December in Davao del Norte’s New Corella town.
Both soldiers, who belong to the 60th Infantry Battalion, were brought by Duterte to the Eastern Mindanao Command headquarters in Davao City on a chopper.
The rebel group, which is fighting for decades now for the establishment of a separate state in the country, is expected to resume talks with the Aquino government, but an immediate cease-fire is unlikely and not until the communist group lay down its preliminary demand for the reopening of the peace talks.
Government peace talks with the NPA collapsed in 2004 after rebels accused then President Gloria Arroyo of reneging on several agreements, among them the release of all political prisoners in the country and the removal of the terrorist tag on the Communist Party of the Philippines and its political wing, the National Democratic Front of the Philippines, and the NPA.
Manila also suspended the Joint Agreement on Safety and Immunity Guarantees after the peace talks failed. (Mindanao Examiner)
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