Rebels seize 15-year-old ‘AFP informer’

TUGUEGARAO CITY, Philippines – Communist rebels seized on Sunday night a 15-year-old boy they suspected of being a military informer in the mountain village of Bagumbayan in Tabuk City, Kalinga, authorities said.

The rebels, numbering at least 40 and led by Leonardo Mangayam, alias Ka Lando, swooped down on the village and roused the teenager from sleep. They fled with the boy toward the mountains of Pinukpuk town, said Senior Superintendent Froilan Perez, Kalinga police director.

Earlier, guerrillas ambushed a convoy transporting precinct count optical scan machines in Bagumbayan, killing two soldiers and wounding six others.

Perez said tribal leaders joined the boy’s parents in tracking down the rebel-kidnappers. The teenager reportedly has several relatives in the military. – Raymund Catindig, Charlie Lagasca