Communist rebels free six drivers in NCotabato town

COTABATO CITY, Philippines  ---Communist rebels set free Tuesday in Makilala, North Cotabato six drivers of air-conditioned passenger vehicles commandeered and used in a spate of attacks in Tagum City area early this week.

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The vehicles were reportedly “hired” by the New People's Army on the pretext that foreign tourists are to use them for sight-seeing trips in North Cotabato.

Senior  Inspector Joyce Birrey, chief of the Makilala municipal police, said one of the six drivers was made to believe that tourists were waiting for them at a zip line facility in Barangay New Israel, several kilometers southwest of the Makilala town proper.

Birrey identified the kidnapped drivers as Armando Wamil, Orbil Bacarro, Reynaldo Pedere, Hashim Moalid, Schimdt Apat, and Danilo Tamayo.

The NPAs reportedly set them free at a hinterland after sensing that responding policemen and combatants of the Army’s 57th Infantry Battalion have started closing in.

The kidnapped drivers, according to Birrey, could have been brought to Makilala from Davao City by one of the vehicles the rebels took.

Birrey said the drivers were released by the NPAs at the border of Barangays New Israel and Malasila, also in Makilala.

Army Colonel Leopoldo Galon, chief of Armed Forces’ 5th Civil-Military Affairs Office, said the commandeered vehicles were used by the rebels in mounting an attack on the Davao Security and Investigative Agency (DASIA) in Orange Valley in Barangay Magugpo South in Tagum City. - John Unson