Chief Superintendent Geary Barias, director of the CARAGA Region, claimed to have received information about the hostage taking but could not immediately carry out rescue operations for fear that the rebels might use the hostages as bait in attacking government troops.
Barias also noted the possibility that land mines were planted in the areas and might be exploded when government troops pass through.
Reports reaching Camp Crame showed that some 100 NPA rebels led by George Madlos, alias Ka Oris, set up a checkpoint in Barangay Kotlog, Darogo, San Francisco, Agusan del Sur yesterday.
Incidentally, Chief Inspector Florencio Ravelo, who was among those initially held hostage, was released by the NPA rebels as he did not introduce himself and instead disguised himself as a civilian.
Meanwhile, five people were wounded after two land mines exploded and hit a passenger jeepney in Barangay Unidos, Tago town in Surigao del Sur early yesterday morning.
Lt. Col. Franciso Simbajon, spokesperson of the Army’s 4th infantry division, said NPA rebels, who were purportedly demanding revolutionary taxes from owners of public vehicles, detonated the land mines after the owners refused to give in to their demands.
Simbajon said the improvised land mines have the capability of damaging a military truck, but because the explosives did not hit the jeepney directly, the splinters wounded only five out of the vehicle’s 15 passengers bound for Cagwait town.
He said the victims were immediately rushed to the Adela Serra Ty Memorial Medical Center, the nearest hospital in Tago town.
The explosion also damaged the road and created a six-foot deep crater.
An hour later, Jorge Madlos, a local rebel leader, sent a text message saying that the explosion "is our gift to President Arroyo," who was scheduled to deliver her State of the Nation Address yesterday.
Mrs. Arroyo ordered an intensified campaign last month to finish off the underground Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) and its armed wing, who have been fighting the government for 37 years.
The land mine attack in Surigao happened just two days after NPA rebels attacked the Matnog Ferry Terminal and Matnog Police Station in Sorsogon on Saturday. — With James Mananghaya, AP, AFP