DAVAO CITY – President-elect Rodrigo Duterte has given up efforts to free a police officer captured by the New People’s Army in Davao Oriental province after the rebel group claimed to have confiscated illegal drugs from their hostage.
Rigoberto Sanchez, a rebel spokesman, said the NPA is holding Chief Inspector Arnold Ongachen following the May 29 raid in Governor Generoso town. He said rebels confiscated a packet of suspected methamphetamine hydrochloride or locally known as shabu from Ongachen, who is currently being interrogated by the NPA.
He said the attack targeted the municipal police force “based on the people’s popular demand to punish the protectors of rampant drug trafficking in the area.”
“In fact, Red fighters confiscated a sachet of shabu from Ongachen following the raid. Furthermore, poor peasants and Lumads have complained that policemen have long protected the land-grabbing activities of prominent families in the province,” Sanchez said.
Duterte, who publicly declared war on illegal drugs, said the fate of Ongachen is now up to the NPA’s so-called kangaroo court. “You have a kangaroo court. Sentence him to 20 years of hard labor,” Duterte said. “I said I’d be harsh (on illegal drugs). I’m sorry for that guy.” He earlier appealed to the rebels to immediately free Ongachen.
Sanchez said the town have been identified as a gateway of illegal drug trade in the province and that government officials have ignored the existence of the nefarious activities there. He also accused the 28th Infantry Battalion of sabotaging the NPA’s planned raid on a laboratory of being run by drug syndicates in the village of Tibanban.
He said rebel forces seized 11 automatic rifles and pistols from the police armory. The next day, he said, rebels also killed several government troops sent to rescue Ongachen.
The rebels have been fighting for decades now for the establishment of a Maoist state in the country. Duterte said he would reopen stalled peace talks with the communist group and has even appointed leftist leaders in his Cabinet.
The United States has twice designated the NPA as foreign terrorist organization, one in 2002 and the latest in 2015, alongside the local jihadist group Abu Sayyaf. (Mindanao Examiner)
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