The Armed Forces of the Philippines said yesterday that the lifting of the government ceasefire will enable them to mount combat rescue operations for three soldiers abducted by the New People’s Army in Mindanao recently.
Yes (we have plans) for that,” AFP Public Affairs Office chief Marine Col. Edgard Arevalo said.
“We are going to rescue them. We can now do that unlike before when there was an ongoing unilateral ceasefire declaration by the government and there was suspension of military operations by the AFP. We can now conduct combat operations against them,” Arevalo said.
“And the first combat operation that we can do against them is to launch a rescue operation for our rescued troops,” according to Arevalo.
He also said that the three soldiers are not considered prisoners of war. Arevalo said that the three soldiers – Sgt. Solaiman Calocop and Private First Class Samuel Garay, both of the 39th Infantry Battalion based in Makilala, Cotabato, and Private First Class Erwin R. Salan of the 30th IB – were not hostile or aggressive when they were taken by the enemy.
“We refuse to call them prisoners of war because they are not belligerent. They are victims of kidnapping,” Arevalo said.
Arevalo said they would not be able to launch a recue operation if there was still an existing ceasefire declaration as the enemy would fight back, shoot at government troops, and accuse the military of hunting them down.
“What we could do at that time is to coordinate with agencies or government officials probably and other personalities who may have the clout to convince them into releasing those soldiers that are in their custody,” Arevalo said.
Calocop and Garay were abducted in Columbio, Sultan Kudarat while onboard a motorcycle on their way to their battalion headquarters.
On the other hand, Salan, deployed as a member of the Peace and Development Team, was abducted while conducting a forest clean up drive with active youth volunteers were within the vicinity of Lumondo Falls in Barangay Budlingin, Alegria, Surigao del Norte. (Francis T. Wakefield)
