NPA holding Army soldier as ‘POW’

Communist guerrillas yesterday said they are holding a recently captured Army officer as a prisoner of war (POW) and are investigating him for possible human rights violations while fighting insurgents.

A New People’s Army (NPA) command operating in the southern Mindanao region identified the captive as Staff Sgt. Alberto Baludoya, a commander of an Army outpost in Cateel, Davao Oriental.

Baludoya has been involved in counter-insurgency operations for 17 years, they said.

"No harm shall befall POW SSgt. Baludoya as the NPA has shown in numerous prisoners of war cases that it upholds its policy of humane and lenient treatment of prisoners of war," rebel spokesman Roel Agustin II said in a statement.

The rebels did not say when or how they captured Baludoya. A special investigating body was set up to determine any "possible war crimes and other serious violations of human rights" that Baludoya may have committed in his long involvement in counter-insurgency operations, the rebels said.

There was no immediate military reaction to the rebels statement.

In 2004, the rebels captured two Army officers during a clash in mountainous Camarines Sur. They freed the two after five months of jungle captivity for humanitarian reasons. – AP