Reds delay release of Army officer

DAVAO CITY – The New People’s Army (NPA) has delayed the release of Army 1Lt. Vicente Cammayo, who was seized during an encounter in Monkayo, Compostela Valley last Nov. 7.

The communist rebels earlier announced that they would free Cammayo last week as a gesture of goodwill. However, it did not materialize, and the NPA blamed the continued military operations in certain areas in Southern Mindanao.

Rigoberto Sanchez, spokesman of the NPA’s Medardo Arce Command, said the “volatile ground situation” arising from the operations of the Army’s 10th Infantry Division has made the safe and orderly release of Cammayo not feasible.

In an open letter to the NPA, Cammayo’s wife Mariel, who is eight months’ pregnant, appealed anew for her husband’s release.

“I honestly believe that whether or not there is a suspension of military operations, that if the CPP-NPA truly had the intention to release my husband out of humanitarian reasons and out of goodwill, you already would have,” she said. – Edith Regalado, James Mananghaya