NPA seizes Mindoro mayor, vice mayor

CAMP VICENTE LIM, Laguna — A town mayor and vice mayor in Oriental Mindoro were snatched and later freed Sunday by New People’s Army (NPA) rebels after they paid P100,000 in so-called permit-to-campaign fees.

Pola town Mayor Alex Aranas and Vice Mayor Rocky Martinez were released eight hours after they were taken at gunpoint on a road in Barangay Campamiento.

However, the rebels refused to free Army Privates Rommel Javier and Dennis Rapadas, and Police Officer 1 Ronald Reanzarez, the mayor’s bodyguards.

In a statement, Lt. Col. Daniel Lucero, Armed Forces spokesman, said the rebels are demanding P300,000 in ransom for the two soldiers and the policeman. Aranas confirmed the ransom demand.

Reports said the rebels took the cellphones and other personal belongings of Aranas and Martinez, and the firearms of their security escorts, which included three M-16 rifles, two caliber .45 pistols and a Berretta 9mm. handgun.

Aranas told a radio station in Oriental Mindoro that the NPA had earlier written him a letter demanding that he pay "permit-to-campaign" fees, but that he was not able to take care of it.

Chief Superintendent Alejandro Lapinid, commander of the Mimaropa (Mindoro-Marinduque-Romblon-Palawan) region police, said Aranas and his entourage were blocked on a road in Barangay Campamiento and seized by about 30 NPA rebels at around 2 p.m. Sunday as he was campaigning with 10 supporters.

Martinez, who was putting up campaign posters, was seized an hour earlier in a nearby barangay, he added. — Arnell Ozaeta, Rene Alviar, James Mananghaya, Christina Mendez, Jaime Laude, John Unson, AP, AFP