Ex-NPA defector to debrief Buan?

Army Maj. Noel Buan will be interrogated by military officials today on his 21 months in captivity.

And the process, called "debriefing" in military parlance, is bound to be interesting: the main man expected to grill Buan was once a communist rebel himself.

During the Marcos regime, young Army officer Victor Corpus defected to the New People’s Army (NPA) and even held one of the highest positions in the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP). Corpus later rejoined the military, rising to the rank of colonel, and now heads the Intelligence Service of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (ISAFP).

An officer close to Corpus said the ISAFP chief might lead Buan’s debriefing at the Army headquarters at Fort Bonifacio in Makati City starting today.

Buan was released by the NPA in Oriental Mindoro yesterday as part of confidence-building measures prior to the holding of formal peace talks between the go-vernment and the communist National Democratic Front (NDF).

The military officer said Buan had to undergo a debriefing to ensure that he has not been brainwashed by his captors. "He might have gone to their side already. We have to know that," the officer said.

Corpus is expected to use his experience with the NPA in the debriefing. He knows the group well, having served as a member of its central committee, which drafts its battle plans.

Corpus was still a lieutenant when he led a raid on the Philippine Military Academy armory at Fort del Pilar in Baguio City in 1971. He later defected to the rebel group and was given a high post in the NPA hierarchy.

He surrendered to the government in the early 1980s and was jailed, ironically, at the ISAFP compound at Camp Aguinaldo before he was granted amnesty in 1986 by then President Corazon Aquino.

Buan told reporters at his release site yesterday that he was treated well by the NPA’s Melito Glor Command which abducted him on Nov. 8, 1999. He assured government officials of his loyalty to the military and his commitment to pursue lasting peace with the rebels.

An intelligence officer, he was believed to be targeted for the sensitive information he had on the rebels.

The same group also seized two police officers, namely Chief Inspector Roberto Bernal in 1997, and Chief Inspector Abelardo Martin in 1999. Martin was killed in an alleged chance encounter between the rebels and military troops in the mountains of Quezon province last March 8. – With Joe Leuterio