NPAs abduct Army trooper in North Cotabato
Breaking News • 01:29 AM Fri Apr 22, 2016
1,307
By:
John Unson
MAKILALA, North Cotabato --
Communist rebels disguised as soldiers snatched early Thursday Army Private 1stClass Eduardo Hilaga, Jr.
while biking through a stretch of a highway in Makilala, North Cotabato.
In his report to 6th Infantry Division commander Maj. Gen. Edmundo Pangilinan,Lt. Col. Harold Argamosa, commander of the 39th IB, saidHilaga was one of some 20 motorists about 30 New People’s Army
guerrillas flagged down at a portion of the Cotabato-Davao Highway in Barangay
Malasila here.According to Chief Insp. Elias Colonia,
Makilala police chief, therebels, who set up a checkpoint, pretending to implement the ban on
carrying of guns being imposed by the Commission on Elections, immediately took
Hilaga captive when they discovered he is a soldier based on a military
identification card they found in his wallet.
Hilaga,
who belong to the 7thIB, was on his way to their headquarters in Kabacan town, also in North
Cotabato, from their home in Barangay Kisante northeast of Makilala.
Officers
of the 7thIB said he was
allowed to visit his family via a traditional overnight pass from his superiors.
He was on his way to Kabacan to join an
Army humanitarian outreach mission intended for poor villagers,” said Captain
Joann Petinglay, spokesperson of the Army’s 6thInfantry
Division in Maguindanao province.
The 7thIB is a component unit of the 6thID, which has jurisdiction
over several towns in North Cotabato.
The NPA
rebels who blocked the highway for about two hours fled towards a nearby
hinterland taking Hilaga with them.
Responding
policemen recovered from the spot, where they stopped vehicles passing through,
Hilaga’s black Honda motorcycle.
Other motorists the rebels flagged down
confirmed to police investigators the NPAs indeed took Hilaga captive.