NPA sends proof of life of two captive soldiers

DAVAO CITY, Philippines  – The New People’s Army (NPA) sent yesterday video and audio clips of two soldiers it seized in North Cotabato last April 14.

In the video and audio clips sent by the NPA custodial unit, Cpl. Delfin Largo Sarocam and Pfc. Jayson Burgos Valenzuela, both of the Army’s 57th Infantry Battalion, assured their families that they were safe and well in the custody of their captors.

The two soldiers called on the military to stop rescue operations so as not to derail their possible early release.

Isabel Santiago, spokesperson of the Herminio Alfonso Command-Front 53 Operations Command of NPA-Southern Mindanao, said Sarocam and Valenzuela are undergoing investigation for “serious crimes they may have committed against the people and the revolution in the course of implementing the regime’s vicious counterrevolutionary war.”

Santiago said though the rights of Sarocam and Valenzuela as “prisoners of war” were being respected in accordance with war protocols and the Comprehensive Agreement for the Respect of Human Rights and International Humanitarian Law.

Sarocam and Valenzuela were seized in Sitio Dalinding, Barangay Datu Inda in President Roxas, North Cotabato.

Santiago said the two were part of the military special operations team deployed in North Cotabato to carry out the new anti-insurgency strategy “Bayanihan.”