DAVAO CITY – The New People’s Army (NPA) released on the video-sharing website YouTube a footage of PO3 Eduardo Tumol who was abducted in Cateel, Davao Oriental last October.
Sporting a beard and clad in a white, black and red shirt, Tumol appealed to his superiors in the Philippine National Police to ask the Armed Forces to stop its operations, particularly in the town of Baganga and its environs in Davao Oriental, saying the offensive would jeopardize his safety.
Tumol’s video footage surfaced just a few days after a separate video showing another NPA hostage, 1Lt. Vicente Cammayo, of the 3rd Special Forces Battalion, was released.
Cammayo was seized last Nov. 7 in an encounter in Sitio Aganase, Barangay Casoon, Monkayo, Compostela Valley that left three soldiers dead and several others wounded.
In the four-minute, 16-second video clip, Tumol assured his family that he was in good condition and that the rebels were taking care of him while in captivity.
The insurgents are reportedly investigating Cammayo and Tumol for human rights violations.
Tumol’s video footage was also released just two days after the NPA rebels issued an open letter addressed to the wives of Tumol and Cammayo, signed by Rubi del Mundo, spokesman of the National Democratic Front-Southern Mindanao.
“Your husbands have been as brave and accepting of their situation as they possibly can, even though they are also very eager to go home. It is my hope that you, being wives of soldiers, can likewise be as brave,” Del Mundo said in the open letter.