DAVAO CITY (Mindanao Examiner / Apr. 7, 2013) – Communist rebels have freed a government soldier they captured at a checkpoint in the southern Philippines, a spokesman said Sunday.
Ka Daniel Ibarra, a spokesman for the New People’s Army, said Pfc. Mark Anthony Conception, was handed over to his family in the town of Maco in Compostela Valley province. Ibarra said the soldier was arrested at an NPA checkpoint on April 3.
“The NPA has safely released Pfc. Mark Anthony G. Conception to his family, girlfriend and village official in (the village of) Panangan in Maco town,” Ibarra said without elaborating.
The capture of Conception came the same day that the NPA released Police Officer 3 Ruben Magno Nojapa, Jr., who was also arrested on March 18 at a checkpoint in Compostela Valley’s Nabunturan town.
The National Democratic Front, the political wing of the Communist Party of the Philippines, has ordered the NPA to free the policeman.
The NPA has been fighting for decades for the establishment of a Maoist state in the country. (Mindanao Examiner)
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