Rebels abduct, execute 2 in South RP

DAVAO CITY, Philippines (Mindanao Examiner / June 10, 2010) – Maoist rebels abducted and killed two people in separate attacks in the southern Philippines where troops are fighting to end communist insurgency in the restive region, the military said on Thursday.

It said New People’s Army rebels seized Alfredo Mia in Davao City’s Paquibato District and that his body was found later on Tuesday in the village of Fatima.

Army Captain Emmanuel Garcia, a spokesman for the 10th Infantry Division, said the 57-year old Mia was an NPA member who was executed by his own group for a still unknown reason.

“The NPA is notoriously known for murdering former rebels or those who surrendered to the government and others who go against or question the undemocratic or criminal policies of the underground Communist Party of the Philippines,” he said.

Garcia blamed NPA leader Leoncio Pitao to the killing of Mia.

He said rebels also abducted on Tuesday a village leader, Kito Melody, in Sultan Kudarat’s Columbio town. Melody’s corpse was peppered with bullets and recovered by soldiers in the village of Maligaya later in the day.

Melody’s companion, Eldie Banawag, a government militia, managed to escape and reported the attack to the military. Banawag told the military that rebels barged in the house of Melody and seized the village leader at gunpoint.

There was no immediate statement from the NPA about the military reports.

The army spokesman said that in 2009 alone, the NPA murdered at least 83 people in Southern Mindanao and that 52 of those mercilessly killed were innocent civilians.

The NPA is fighting the past four decades for the establishment of a communist state in the country. Peace talks with Manila collapsed in 2004 after rebel leaders accused President Gloria Arroyo of reneging on several agreements, among them was the unconditional release of political prisoners languishing in jails without formal criminal charges. (Mindanao Examiner)