CPP-NPA preparing to release 2 soldiers

TARLAC CITY — Communist rebels operating in Albay and Camarines Sur are now making preparations for the release of two soldiers they have been holding hostage for five and a half months now.

But Gregorio "Ka Roger" Rosal, senior spokesman of the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP), said the Romulo Jallores Command of the New People’s Army (NPA) will release 1Lt. Ronaldo Fidelino and Pfc. Ronnel Nemeno only after it has "verified" that the police and the military are "strictly complying" with Malacañang’s order for a 20-day "suspension of operations," starting last Friday, in the two Bicol provinces.

Rosal claimed that the Department of National Defense "secretly issued" the order to ground troops. This, as the military earlier had refused to negotiate the release of the two soldiers with the "communist terrorists."

Brig. Gen. Ramon Santos, commanding general of the Army’s 901st Infantry Brigade based in Daraga, Albay, said "all the conditions have been complied with."

"In fact, all Army troopers in those areas have been ordered to return to their bases," he said.

The NPA seized Fidelino and Nemeno during an ambush last March 1 in Barangay Bataan in Tinambac, Camarines Sur.

Three days after the incident, Rosal said the CPP-NPA was willing to release the two soldiers on "humanitarian grounds," but that the government should negotiate this with the National Democratic Front (NDF), their political arm which is involved in formal peace talks with the government.

Rosal said the release of Fidelino and Nemeno has been stalled twice because of the military’s "intransigence." The first was last April when the military deployed troops in Bicol for "search and rescue" operations.

About a week ago, the rebels were again about to release the two soldiers but the NPA "custodial force" holding them reportedly had to retreat from the designated release site due to a military operation.

The NPA was planning to free the two soldiers on or before Aug. 16 as a "birthday gift" to Fidelino’s daughter, Alea Nicole, who will celebrate her second birthday on that day.

Rosal said the CPP-NPA-NDF is extending its "deepest apologies" to Alea Nicole because their plan "was made impossible by the (military’s) refusal to follow the SOMO order." — With Celso Amo and Artemio Dumlao