Buan to stay longer in hospital after debriefing

Army Maj. Noel Buan will remain in hospital for "a few more days" before being debriefed by Army intelligence agents two weeks after the New People’s Army (NPA) freed him.

A senior official, who requested anonymity, told reporters yesterday doctors will make sure that Buan has no "unexpected or hidden ailments" that have been caused by his long captivity in the mountains.

"According to the doctors, some illnesses do not immediately manifest themselves," the official said. "When he was presented to the President, he was visibly not yet fully recovered from his captivity."

The official said Buan will be debriefed in Fort Bonifacio but that he will be "frequently and regularly" allowed to see his family during that period.

"I’m sure that while at the hospital, he is already writing his report," the official said. "He knows what to do, it’s in his training."

Another official said some "initial debriefings" have already been conducted and that full-scale interviews are set to start next week.

After Buan’s release, an intelligence officer told reporters: "We have to make sure that he has not been (brainwashed into becoming a communist)."

Buan is confined at the Bonifacio Station Hospital at Army headquarters in Fort Bonifacio, Makati.

When the NPA kidnapped Buan in Quezon Province in July 1999, he was deputy intelligence chief of the Armed Forces Southern Luzon Command. –Paolo Romero