Rebels Confirm Holding Army Soldier As Prisoner Of War In Southern Philippines

DAVAO CITY (Mindanao Examiner / 06 May) – The New People’s Army on Sunday said it is holding captive a government soldier and will try him for war crimes in a people’s court in the southern Philippines.

Army detachment commander, Sgt. Albert Balodoya, was seized April 16 at a rebel checkpoint in the village of Aliwagwag in the town of Cateel in Davao Oriental province.

Police said the soldier was on his way to the town when rebels stopped him at the checkpoint. It said Balodoya may have mistaken the rebels for government soldiers because they were clad in military uniform.

Roel Agustin II, spokesman of the NPA’s Conrado Heredia Command, said they are holding Balodoya as a prisoner of war.

“A special investigative body was set-up by the Merardo Arce Command-Southern Mindanao Regional Operations Command-NPA to look into the possible war crimes and other serious violations of Human Rights and International Humanitarian Law which may have been committed by POW SSgt. Balodoya in his 17 years of active participation in the counter-revolutionary war.”

“POW SSgt. Balodoya is the detachment commander of the 72nd Infantry Battalion-AFP; his detachment is nestled right in the midst of civilian communities in Aliwagwag, Cateel in Davao Oriental,” Agustin said in a statement sent to the independent regional newspaper, the Mindanao Examiner.

The NPA, armed wing of the Communist Party of the Philippines, is fighting the government for more than four decades now for the establishment of a Maoist state in the country.

The rebels have previously seized government soldiers and policemen in the countryside and put them on trial on their so-called people’s court.

Those found guilty of war crimes and serious human rights violations are executed, but most of the victims are freed after months of captivity to neutral groups, such as the International Committee of the Red Cross. (With a report from Juan Magtanggol)