NPAs demand P25-M ransom for 3 Agusan mining firm execs

Manila, Philippines -  New People’s Army (NPA) rebels holding three civilian hostages they seized after raiding a mining firm in Agusan del Sur Thursday morning are demanding a P25 million-ransom, guns and an end to military and police operations against them. 

Maj. Eugenio Julio Osias IV, spokesman for the 4th Infantry Division, said the insurgents led by Renato Sayasat alias Commander Friday, have coursed their demands through the provincial and municipal crisis management committee.

The hostages were identified as Christopher Ocite, operations manager of the VPO Mining (not VTO as earlier reported); Gani Altaya, assistant operations manager; and Joel Jayuma, the mining’s firm security chief. 

The NPA rebels took the three after slipping through a police-military security cordon in the compound of VPO Mining firm, which the Ocite family owns, in Barangay Bayugan, Rosario town Thursday morning. 

“These rebels are no longer fighting for a cause. What they are doing now is act of criminality and terrorism but we have no choice but to follow the decision of the civilian leadership,” Osias said. 

Osias said ground troops are under orders from their immediate superior, Col. Romeo Gan, 401st Infantry Brigade commander, not to mount any actions that could endanger the lives of the hostages.