Joma to Joe: Captives freed in 15 to 30 days

DAGUPAN CITY — Former House Speaker Jose de Venecia said communist leader Jose Ma. Sison informed him in a phone conversation yesterday that the New People’s Army (NPA) will work on the release of an Army intelligence officer and a police major in "15 to 30 days."

The two captives are Army Maj. Noel Buan and police Chief Inspector Abelardo Martin, whom the NPA has kept somewhere in Southern Tagalog for two years now.

De Venecia also quoted the Netherlands-based Sison as saying that the release could coincide with the arrival in Amsterdam of the Arroyo government’s peace negotiators, former Justice Secretary Silvestre Bello III, Agrarian Reform Hernani Braganza and Defense Secretary Eduardo Ermita.

Sison, De Venecia said, expressed hopes that the military will stop its operations in Laguna, Batangas, Quezon, Rizal and Mindoro to ensure the release of Buan and Martin.

De Venecia flew to the Netherlands three weeks ago and convinced Sison, Luis Jalandoni and Fidel Agcaoili to return to the negotiating table. — Eva de Leon