NORTH COTABATO, Philippines — Communist rebels snatched on Wednesday morning a policeman in Barangay Katipunan in Kidapawan City.
PO1 Bristol Catalan was riding a motorcycle en route to Makilala town in North Cotabato when New People’s Army guerillas flagged him down and herded him towards a nearby hinterland at gunpoint after disarming him of his service firearm.
Superintendent Romeo Galgo Jr., spokesman of the Regional Police Office-12, said Catalan is assigned to the municipal police office in Makilala, a highland town near Kidapawan City, the capital of North Cotabato.
Galgo said personnel of the North Cotabato provincial police office and the Army’s 39th Infantry Battalion are now chasing the NPAs holding Catalan captive.
Barangay officials are also helping locate Catalan and his captors, according to Galgo.