Reds ready to free captive PAF major

TARLAC CITY — After more than six months in captivity, Air Force Maj. Neptune Elequin will be released in time for Christmas.

This was confirmed by Jorge de los Reyes, spokesman for the National Democratic Front (NDF) in Central Luzon, in a statement given to The STAR yesterday.

Although there is no definite date, Reyes said they will release Elequin to his family in time for Christmas despite "the government’s continued refusal" to negotiate with the communist group.

Last Oct. 3, Reyes said the NDF-Central Luzon offered to negotiate the safe and orderly release of Elequin.  

However, the NDF said Col. Tristan Kison, spokesman of the Armed Forces, rejected its offer and disregarded the plea of Elequin’s family for the military to negotiate his release.

In its statement, the NDF said that Church and local government officials in Central Luzon have offered to act as intermediaries in the negotiations with the New People’s Army’s Josefino Corpuz Command, which has been holding Elequin captive.

According to the NDF, a "thorough investigation" by its "people’s revolutionary committees" concluded that Elequin, an engineer in charge of the civil-military operations of the 355th Engineering Battalion based at Basa Air Base in Floridablanca, Pampanga "has not committed any serious crime against the people and deserves to be released."

Elequin was abducted from his home in Mawacat, Floridablanca last July 2.

Lt. Col. Preme Monta, spokesman of the Armed Forces’ Northern Luzon Command (Nolcom) based at Camp Aquino here, said the NDF’s offer to release Elequin was a "welcome development."

"But that should not make heroes out of them (NPA abductors). They should not be glorified because of that," he said.

"That (Elequin’s release) will somehow simmer down the anger of the people toward them. That is the better option for them to redeem themselves," he added.

Earlier, Monta said Nolcom was prepared to issue safe conduct passes to NPA rebels if they would decide to release Elequin and Marine Sgt. Marlon Oronan, who was abducted last November but was reportedly later killed by his abductors.

Oronan was on leave from his post at the 6th Marine Battalion in Lanao del Norte when he was seized from his home in Barangay Pulong Masle in Guagua, Pampanga last Nov. 18.

"We are still praying very hard that he is still alive," Monta said.

Monta told The STAR that higher-ups in the Armed Forces have to reconsider the safe conduct passes which the military earlier offered to the insurgents for Elequin’s release.

Nevertheless, the NDF warned military units in Central Luzon "not to sabotage or attack the ongoing efforts to release Elequin."   

"We do not want a repeat of the tragic experience of PNP Chief Inspector Abelardo Martin who was killed by the (Armed Forces’) own bullets when the military botched an attempt to rescue him from NPA captivity in March 2001 in Nakar, Quezon," it said.

The NDF gave assurances that Elequin is in good health and was not subjected to a revolutionary trial. — With Ding Cervantes