Gloria pleads for release of NPA hostages

Vice President and Social Welfare Secretary Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo appealed yesterday to the National Democratic Front-New People's Army (NDF-NPA) to immediately release a policeman and a soldier they have been holding hostage for the past several months.

Macapagal issued the appeal as the wives of Chief Inspector Abelardo Martin and Army Maj. Noel Buan and Iglesia Filipiniana Indepediente Bishop Tomas Millamena met with her at the Office of the Vice-President at the Philippine International Convention Center in Manila.

Macapagal asked Millemena, who had been invited to an affair of the NDF in Ultrecht, the Netherlands, to relay her appeal to NDF leaders Jose Ma. Sison and Luis Jalandoni.

She expressed concern over the possible adverse affects of the continued captivity of Martin and Buan on the peace efforts both by the government and the NDF-NPA.

"We are all aspiring for peace. But we will achieve it if we will all work for it," she said.

Macapagal had earlier arranged for Buan's wife Cielo and Martin's wife Nenita to meet with Executive Secretary Ronaldo Zamora who is over-all in charge of the panel negotiating with local communist groups.