NPA releases police officer after nearly 2 months in Mindanao

DAVAO CITY – New People’s Army rebels gave the family of Police Officer 3 Eduardo Tumol a Christmas gift by releasing him after he had been kept captive for almost two months in the hinterlands of Mindanao.

According to Chief Superintendent Andres Caro II, head of the Directorate for Integrated Police Operations-Eastern Mindanao (DIPO-EM), the communist rebels released Tumol to Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte and his daughter Vice Mayor Sara Duterte at the vicinity of Seaside Restaurant in Mati City, Davao Oriental.

Caro said the Dutertes immediately flew Tumol by helicopter to the Philippine National Police Southern Mindanao regional headquarters in Camp Catitipan here at around 4 p.m. yesterday.

The mayor and his daughter turned Tumol over to Region XI police director Chief Superintendent Pedro Tango as well as to his family upon arrival at Camp Catitipan.

Tumol, a member of the Provincial Police Mobile Group (PPMG), was taken last Nov. 5 by members of an NPA mobile checkpoint in Baogo, Cateel, Davao Oriental.

Duterte has been working for the release of Tumol and 1Lt. Vicente Cammayo, who was also abducted by NPA rebels in a separate incident in Sitio Agnase, Barangay Casoon, Monkayo, Compostela Valley last Nov. 7.