Army officers face court-martial over NPA attack

MANILA, Philippines — The Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) will look into last Wednesday’s rebel attack that overran an Army patrol base in a remote area in Agusan del Sur that led to the kidnapping of 12 militiamen and two soldiers.

AFP Public Affairs Office chief Col. Noel Detoyato said a board of inquiry (BOI) has been created to determine possible lapses in the security of the Army’s Special Forces troops.

“Pursuit operation is ongoing and the BOI was commissioned to ascertain the facts leading to the raid and to determine who was remiss in his duties,” Detoyato said.

Initial reports said communist New People’s Army (NPA) staged the attack on the outpost of the Army’s 3rd Special Forces Battalion where the rebels snatched 12 militiamen and two soldiers supervising them.

They were apparently literally caught sleeping on the job, reports said.

Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana said the rebels could have had an informant inside the camp.

“We are still verifying reports that one of the abducted militiamen has NPA relatives and he could have acted as the rebels’ conduit in the raid. At any rate we are still investigating and we don’t have a complete picture of what really happened. Let’s wait for the completion of the full investigation of the commanders on the ground,” Lorenzana said.

Officials said the ranking officers might face court martial proceedings over the lax security.

AFP chief Lt. Gen. Benjamin Madrigal Jr. said the Army launched pursuit operations against the NPA rebels responsible for the attack.

Maj. General Ronald Villanueva, Division Commander of the Army’s 4th Infantry Division, said he wanted to discharge from the service the troops kidnapped by the NPA.

Villanueva took note of reports that the troops were sleeping when they were attacked by the NPA rebels.

Villanueva told a local radio station that they will no longer conduct rescue operations for the kidnapped soldiers and leave their fate to the NPA.

NPA spokesperson Ka Sandara said all 14 are in their custody.

Sandara said the hostages would be treated fairly and humanely as prisoners of war.

Sandara also announced two other government troopers were captured or held as prisoners of war by NPA rebels in Los Angeles, Butuan City.  – With Ben Serrano, Jose Rodel Clapano