Daughter of NPA soldier-hostage may get birthday gift

TARLAC CITY — New People’s Army (NPA) rebels operating in Bicol may release the two soldiers whom they have held since last March, on or before Aug. 16 as a "birthday gift" to the daughter of one of the captives.

But Gregorio "Ka Roger" Rosal, senior spokesman for the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP), said the release of 1Lt. Ronaldo Fedelino and Pfc. Ronnel Lemeno will still depend on the "actual and full compliance" by the Armed Forces and the Philippine National Police with their demand for a "suspension of military and police operations."

Fedelino’s daughter Alea Nicole marks her birthday on Aug. 16.

Fighters of the NPA’s Romulo Jallores Command have been holding the two soldiers captive for more than five months after seizing them in an encounter in Barangay Bataan in Tinambac town, Camarines Sur last March 1.

Three days after Fedelino and Lemeno were captured, Rosal announced that the CPP-NPA was willing to free the two soldiers on "humanitarian grounds" if the military and police would stop their maneuvers in Camarines Sur and Albay.

Rosal also asked the government to negotiate the two soldiers’ freedom with the National Democratic Front (NDF), which has been representing the rebel movement in formal peace talks with the government.

Tarlac Gov. Jose Yap, senior consultant of the government peace panel, earlier said they have been holding talks with Manila-based NDF negotiator Fidel Agcaoili for the safe release of Fedelino and Lemeno.

Agcaoili co-chairs, in behalf of the NDF, the Joint Monitoring Committee tasked to oversee the implementation of the Comprehensive Agreement on Respect for Human Rights and International Humanitarian Law.

The Armed Forces has been firm on its stand not to negotiate the two soldiers’ release with the rebels.

"We have a policy. We will never negotiate with the communist terrorists. We have no negotiations as far as the Armed Forces is concerned. If there are such negotiations, they are the initiatives of other people," said Army chief Lt. Gen. Efren Abu.

Abu, however, said the military will cooperate with sectors negotiating the release of the two soldiers.

Lt. Gen. Alfonso Dagudag, chief of the Armed Forces’ Southern Luzon Command, said search and rescue operations for Fedelino and Lemeno will continue.

Rosal said Fedelino and Lemeno "should have been released as early as the first week of April if not for the intransigence and non-compliance of the Armed Forces with the agreements."— With James Mananghaya and Jaime Laude