Militiaman abducted by NPA ahead of peace talks

SURIGAO CITY — With the fifth round of formal peace talks between the Philippine Government (GRP) and the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) only a week away, another abduction of a government militia member was reported in Tandag City, Surigao del Sur.

Authorities said Jeremias E. Estrada, a member of the Civilian Armed Forces Geographical Unit (Cafgu) assigned at the Matho Patrol Base in Barangay Matho, Cortes, Surigao del Sur, was forcibly taken by heavily armed men believed to be Communist rebels from his residence in Purok Lansones, Barangay San Agustin in Tandag City at 7 a.m. yesterday.

According to Lt. Col. Randolph P. Rojas, commanding officer of 36th Infantry Battalion of the Philippine Army, the victim was off-duty and was spending time with his family when four armed men with AK 47 barged into his house, tied him up, and abducted him.

Rojas said the victim’s wife Berlinda Pael Estrada said she saw more than 20 heavily armed men encircle their residence as she plead with them not to hurt her husband.

Ka Sandra, spokesperson of the Guerilla Front 30 of New People’s Army operating in Tandag and neighboring towns told a local radio station, yesterday afternoon, that they were behind the abduction of the CAFGU member.

But all is not lost as far as the peace talks are concerned after the NDFP showed interest in releasing Army Technical Sergeant Joseph Paredes, who was abducted in Bukidnon, in time for the start of the fifth round of talks that will be held May 27 to June 1 in Noordwijk ann-See, The Netherlands.

The NDFP has reportedly appealed to church leaders, who are acting as third party facilitators, to intervene in working for the freedom of Paredes.

But the New People’s Army (NPA), armed wing of the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) and NDFP, asked that military and police commanders stop tactical operations in Bukidnon before they can release Paredes.

Iglesia Filipina Independiente Bishop Felixberto Calang, co-convenor of the Philippine Ecumenical Peace Platform, one of the third party facilitators, said they will coordinate with Bukidnon Governor Jose Maria Zubiri Jr. and members of the provincial crisis management committee for the release of Paredes.

Paredes, a member of the Army’s 8th Infantry Battalion was chanced upon by a rebel-manned checkpoint near Juanilla Subdivision in Malaybalay City, Bukidnon province, where the rebels conducted a raid at an office of a security agency there on May 5, 2017.