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By Al Jacinto, Correspondent
ZAMBOANGA CITY: Suspected Communist rebels fighting for a separate
Maoist state in the Philippines have executed a government soldier
they captured in the restive region of Mindanao, officials said.
Military officials said the body of Staff
Sergeant Rolen Maglangit of the 36th Infantry Battalion was
recovered at about 6.30 p.m. on Saturday, a day after he was seized
by New People’s Army (NPA) rebels in Compostela Valley province.
Two policemen who were also reported taken by
the rebels in the town of Monkayo town had been accounted for, said
Captain Rosa Maria Cristina Manuel, a spokesman for the 10th
Infantry Division.
“The abducted soldier is dead,” she told The
Manila Times.
Maglangit was seized by the NPA after he tried
to aid villagers being harassed by rebels in the village of Pasian.
“The commotion reached the attention of
Maglangit, who was in the area procuring supplies. Maglangit, in
civilian attire and unarmed, rushed to the scene to verify the
disturbance,” said the army spokeswoman.
“He was able to relay the report to his unit
when he confirmed the presence of an undetermined number of NPAs
harassing the civilians. While leaving the area, another group of
NPAs suddenly held Maglangit and eventually kidnapped him.”
Major General Reynaldo Mapagu, commander of the
army division, said the soldier was brutally killed. His body bore
torture marks and several gunshot wounds.
“The brutal murder of Staff Sergeant Rolen
Maglangit perpetuated by the NPA on May 22 is enough wake up call
for the Mindanaoans to unite and a put to stop their killing
spree.”
“They have switched to a mode where they are
willing to violate human rights and put justice into their own
hands,” Mapagu said.
“We believe that he was murdered immediately
after his kidnapping. I am sure that Sergeant Maglangit was not even
sentenced by their kangaroo court. He was a brave soldier. He was
going around his area of work, checking on the reported harassment
of civilians by the NPA, when he was kidnapped,” Mapagu said.
The NPA said the soldier was killed during his
attempted escape.
“Consistent with the Standard Operating
Procedures pertaining to enemy combatants arrested or captured by
NPA units, Sgt. Maglangit was to be subjected to an investigation
for possible violations of human rights, other violations of
international humanitarian law and crimes against the people
particularly owing to the notorious record of the 36th Infantry
Battalion versus the masses in the tri-boundaries of Agusan del Sur,
Davao Oriental and Compostela Valley provinces.”
“But after being informed of the investigation
he needed to undergo and despite repeated warnings from his captors
not to run in the course of their trek, Sgt. Maglangit showed clear
signs of resistance and eventually tried to escape. He was able to
run a distance, but was hit by a burst of gunfire from the pursuing
NPA troops. His corpse was left behind so as to be easily discovered
by residents for proper disposition,” said Rigoberto Sanchez, a
rebel spokesman.
The abduction of Maglangit came barely two weeks
after rebels freed a captured government soldier—Private First
Class Ronnie Trinidad—in Compostela Valley. The NPA said it freed
the soldier on humanitarian grounds.
Rebels captured Trinidad, who belongs to
the 66th Infantry Battalion, on April 28 at a checkpoint in the
village of Pagsabangan in New Bataan town. Trinidad was seized while
on his way to barracks with another soldier, Corporal Japhet Lavid,
who had escaped from the rebels.
Last week, communist rebels also executed a
former army soldier, Dante Villa, whom they seized on May 9 in Davao
del Sur province, also in Mindanao. His body was recovered in the
village of Dongan Pekong in Matanao town.
Early this month, NPA rebels admitted killing
four civilians—Ruben Bitang, Macky Estremos, Marcelino Payot and
Bobong Gambuta—they accused of aiding the military in its
anti-insurgency campaign. The rebels also tagged the four men as
behind the brutal murder of Rebelyn Bitang, a daughter of a senior
NPA leader Leoncio Pitao.
Pitao’s daughter was abducted in Davao City on
March 4. Her naked body was found the next day floating in a shallow
creek in the village of San Isidro in Davao del Norte’s Carmen
town. Her family said the woman’s body bore torture marks and was
believed raped.
The NPA is the armed wing of the outlawed
Communist Party of the Philippines, which has been waging a
secessionist war in the country. Peace talks between Manila and the
CPP-NPA collapsed in 2004 after both sides failed to sign an
agreement to end more than four decades of bloody fighting.
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