"Our position that we will not negotiate with the rebels will remain, but we welcome any third party, including the media, to act as intermediary between Mrs. Eliquin and the NPA," Maj. Augusto de la Peña, deputy director of the PAF public affairs office, told The STAR yesterday.
Col. Preme Monta, spokesman of the Armed Forces Northern Luzon Command (Nolcom), said, "We have feedback that Eliquin is still alive and we are still in pursuit of the rebels holding him captive."
Monta declined to give details of the progress of military efforts to track down Eliquin’s captors so as not to jeopardize the rescue operation.
Earlier, Eliquin’s wife, Teresita, appealed, through the media, for the NPA to release her husband whom military officials insisted was a non-combatant.
De la Peña said that while Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP)-NPA spokesman Gregorio Rosal has acknowledged that rebels from Pam—panga and Samar were holding an Air Force major captive, he never identified Eliquin.
"As a matter of fact, Rosal claimed that two Air Force officials were in their hands, but it was a mere psychological ploy because a thorough check we made revealed that only Eliquin is in the hands of the NPA," he said.
Like Monta, De la Peña said Eliquin is still alive. He declined to give details of the location of Eliquin and his captors, saying, "There are conflicting reports that we have to verify."
De la Peña said the NPA apparently has been evading the issue of Eliquin’s abduction.
"It was a major error on their part since Eliquin was unarmed when he was abducted and was a non-combatant. The rebels did a terrorist act by abducting an Air Force engineer whose task was to help poor communities surrounding his base," he said.
"As a non-combatant, Eliquin should be released," he said.
Eliquin is the civil-military operations officer of the PAF’s 355th Engineering Brigade at Basa Air Base in Floridablanca.
De la Peña said Eliquin, together with two civilian companions, was on his way back to Basa after planting ipil-ipil seedlings in mountainous Barangay Mawakat when he was seized. — Ding Cervantes