Guerillas to release military POW captured in Monkayo ambush

Communist guerrillas announced Monday that they plan to relese a military soldier they captured last week.

The Alejandro Lanaja Command (ALC) of the New People's Army said they were releasing its prisoner-of-war, Pfc. Marjun Gatela, a member of the 72nd Infantry Battalion-Armed Forces of the Philippines.

Gatela was captured during an ambush last Friday in Sitio Kidapang, Brgy. San Isidro, Monkayo, Compostela Valley.

The rebels said that Gatela has not committed serious crimes against the people on his own individual volition and his actions against the revolutionary movement and the people were merely a result of his being an element of the AFP.

Not being an officer of his unit, they declared that Gatela cannot be held liable for the crimes against the people and the human rights violations committed by the 72nd IB-AFP.

As such, they said, the New People's Army high command has approved for Gatela's immediate release as an exercise of the revolutionary political authority by the People's Democratic Government.