PAGADIAN CITY (Mindanao Examiner / May 16, 2012) – Communist rebels have freed a policeman they took captive during a raid at a police base in the southern Philippines, officials said Wednesday.
Chief Superintendent Manuel Barcena, chief of the police Directorate for Integrated Police Operations in Western Mindanao, said New People’s Army rebels freed Police Officer 2 Faizahl Juhaili in the village of Kanipaan in Zamboanga del Sur’s Bayog town on Tuesday.
“Faisahl has been freed and we are continuing our operation against the rebels,” Barcena told the Mindanao Examiner.
Juhaili was seized by rebels on April 9 following a raid in Tigbao town.
Jorge Madlos, a spokesman for the NPA, said they released the prisoner after a rebel court cleared him of any crimes. “The revolutionary political authority in the area reported that the investigation on PO2 Juhaili yielded no evidence to prove that he committed grave crimes against the people except that he only acted according to his duty as a police officer,” he said.
“At the same time, there were no formal charges filed against him to the court of the people’s democratic government. Therefore, there was no material basis anymore for his continued detention, warranting his release,” Madlos added.
He said the policeman “cooperated and displayed a good attitude towards the members of the NPA’s custodial unit.”
“PO2 Juhaili, already in his 50s and has seven children, is also being released on humanitarian grounds in response to the plea of his family, relatives and friends for his immediate safe release,” Madlos said.
Dozens of rebels stormed Juhaili’s police headquarters in a daring attack and carted away weapons. Rebels also put up a checkpoint along the national highway as the others raided the town’s police base.
The NPA has been fighting for decades for the establishment of a Maoist state in the country. (With a report from Ely Dumaboc)
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