NPA frees Mindoro mayor’s cop escort

CAMP VICENTE LIM, Laguna — Communist rebels freed yesterday a policeman-escort of a Mindoro Oriental mayor they had held hostage since Easter Sunday, authorities said.

No ransom was said to have been paid for the release of PO1 Ronald Reanzares in a far-flung village somewhere in Bongabon and Roxas towns in Mindoro Oriental.

The New People’s Army (NPA) guerrillas are still holding captive two soldiers, Privates Michael Rapadas and Joel Javier.

Reanzares and the two soldiers were escorting Mayor Alex Aranas and Vice Mayor Arturo Martinez, both of Pola town, and seven other people in posting campaign materials in Barangay Campamiento, some eight kilo—meters east of the Pola town proper, when about 30 NPA rebels seized them.

Except for Reanzares and the two soldiers, the two officials and the rest of the group were released allegedly upon payment of P100,000 as permit-to-campaign fee.

Aranas said they did not pay "even a single centavo" for Reanzares’ freedom.

"No. The reports which said I gave money to the NPA are not true. They are erroneous. They (the rebels) gave us Reanzares because of our insistence for them to release him. His relatives also helped in the negotiations," Aranas said.

In freeing Reanzares, detailed as Aranas’ security escort, sources said the NPA took into consideration his being a neophyte policeman and his having no human rights violations.

Higom Maragang, leader of the NPA’s Lucio de Guzman Command, has refused to free Rapadas and Javier, tagging them as "prisoners of war."

Col. Fernando Mesa, head of the Army’s 204th Infantry Brigade based in Naujan town, has clarified that the two soldiers were assigned as part of an augmentation force in Pola town and not as security escorts of Aranas.

"The two were never assigned as security escorts of Mayor Aranas. If only he had asked us for escorts, this thing could not have happened. For the record, we had no knowledge of his campaign because he never informed us," Mesa said.

He said Aranas informed him about the incident only at about 9:30 p.m. last Sunday.

"It is clear to the local candidates that they should formally inform us of their campaign inside NPA-infested areas," he added.

Mesa said they will not negotiate the release of Rapadas and Javier, adding that they will continue their anti-NPA campaign. — With Joe Leuterio