NPA rebs seize Marine on vacation

CAMP OLIVAS, Pampanga — A Marine on a month-long vacation was seized by eight armed men suspected to be members of the New People’s Army (NPA) from his house in Barangay Pulong Masle, Guagua town last Wednesday.

Senior Superintendent Leonardo Espina, Pampanga police director, said the rebels snatched and dragged T/Sgt. Marlon Alba Oronan, 39, to an unlicensed van at about 7:15 a.m.

Oronan’s wife Lilia said she was preparing breakfast while her husband was gardening with their two children aged two and 14 when the incident happened.

Oronan is assigned to the 6th Marine Battalion Landing Team based in Lanao del Norte.

Last July 2, Air Force Maj. Neptune Eliquin, detailed in the 355th Engineering Wing at Basa Air Base in Zambales, was also abducted by NPA rebels believed belonging to the Lino Blas and Palermo Ortañez commands in Barangay Poblacion, Floridablanca town.

The police said Eliquin was last seen in the mountains of Zambales.

The National Democratic Front has signified its intention to release Eliquin on condition that the military halt its tactical operations in Central Luzon, which the Armed Forces rejected.

Maj. Gen. Romeo Tolentino, chief of the Armed Forces Northern Luzon Command, said these abductions are part of the rebels’ desperate act to "recover from the series of debacles they suffered during armed encounters with the military recently."

The Communist Party of the Philippines-NPA has not officially issued any statement owning up to Oronan’s abduction. — With Ding Cervantes, Artemio Dumlao and James Mananghaya