NPA asks Duterte to facilitate return of cash to Otaza’s kin

DAVAO CITY – The New People’s Army (NPA) earlier this week asked Mayor Rodrigo Duterte to help facilitate the return of the 25,000.00 cash taken from slain Loreto, Agusan del Sur town Mayor Dario Otaza.

In an e-mailed letter addressed to Duterte, a copy of which was furnished the Manila Bulletin, NPA’s Southern Mindanao Regional Operations Command spokesperson Rigoberto Sanchez said they are asking the mayor to facilitate the turnover of said amount to the Otaza family in his capacity as the Regional Peace and Order Council chairperson.

“In adherence to the NPA’s internal code of discipline and the rules and customs of war stipulated in the Geneva conventions and other instrument on International Humanitarian Law, the NPA is duty bound to return any personal item or belongings without any military value,” Sanchez pointed out.

Aside from the money, the NPAs also confiscated a total of 10 firearms from Otaza, he added.

Despite the criticisms on its act by the international group Human Rights Watch (HRW), the NPA justified the execution of Otaza and his son Daryl, calling the same as revolutionary justice that is part of their mandate to uphold the people’s democratic rights and to remove conditions that allow the occurrence, especially of the most inhumane crimes that cause suffering among the people.

Sanchez reiterated in the same letter that the special operation conducted by the NPA last October 19 in Butuan City was meant to execute the standing order of capital punishment against Mayor Otaza and his son. (Alexander D. Lopez)