Army reveals NPA plot to abduct NorCot lawmaker

KIDAPAWAN CITY
– Military authorities here today revealed the communist New Peoples Army (NPA)
rebels in North Cotabato plotted to abduct Rep. Nancy Catamco.

Colonel Nilo
Vinluan, 57th Infantry Battalion chief, said the plot was unearth
after two communist members surrendered to the Army last week.

Vinluan said
the couple who surrendered revealed that the movement was plotting to abduct the
North Cotabato second district representative because of her support for the
establishment of a geothermal plant in Barangay Tico, Magpet town.

However,
Vinluan said the information, although coming from within the ranks of the NPA,
is still being verified carefully.

Catamco,
meanwhile, said she already had the information but consider it unbelievable
since her stance on the proposed geothermal plant was clear.

Claiming she
has nothing to do with the project, Catamco said from the start her position
was the same, that is, all the people in the communities where the Aboitiz
geothermal project will rise must be carefully consulted.

She said the
indigenous peoples must be consulted because the project, if pushes through,
will rise in an area claimed as ancestral lands of tribal groups.

I find the
threat unbelievable but the military and the police advised me to take it
seriously,” she said.

Vinluan said
the 57th IB is ready to provide Catamco with security personnel.