NPA kidnap victims’ remains found in Leyte

LEYTE, Philippines – Authorities exhumed the skeletal remains of two men who have been reported missing since the 1980s in MacArthur town, Leyte last Friday.

The bones were identified by relatives of the victims, who were reportedly snatched by the New People’s Army (NPA) guerillas, through their clothing.

The remains of Nicostrates Nobio, reportedly kidnapped in August 1984, was dug from a shallow grave in Barangay Lanawan.

Nobio was identified by his sons Reynaldo and Rodrigo through a polo shirt he was wearing when he was last seen alive.

Wilfredo Gabao, 59, who was with Nobio on the day the victim was kidnapped, said they were on their way to a fiesta when three armed men took the victim away.

Nobio’s sons said their father was probably mistaken for a spy. They said they joined the government militia to protect themselves after their father was kidnapped.

The second set of skeletal remains, said to be that of Lolieto Custodio, was found in the nearby village of San Vicente.

Custodio’s son Levi, 47, said he, his brother and a neighbor were with their father on the day armed men kidnapped him. He said the kidnappers hogtied them and took his father away.

Levi said the shirt found with the bones was his father’s favorite. He said they moved to Manila after the incident.

Meanwhile, Eliza Concordo, who accompanied the authorities to the site, expressed hope that her father, Felipe Nobio, would also be found.

Concordo said several men, believed to be victims of the NPA’s Operation: Venereal Disease in the 1980s, remain missing.

 Lt. Col. Allan Jose Taguba, chief of the Army’s 78th Infantry Battalion, said among those reported missing from Mac-Arthur town alone were Alfredo Parado, Nestor and Conrado Bernal, Marcelino Castro, Daniel Gonzaga, Pepe Casuela, Bebot Abalos, Beyo Gubi and Puri Casuela.