Soldier abandons own kids to escape NPA capture in Davao province

From the Mindanao Examiner (Dec 13): Soldier abandons own kids to escape NPA capture in Davao province

The New People’s Army on Thursday said a government soldier abandoned his 2 children and a woman to escape capture in the southern Philippine province of Davao del Norte. It also denied reports by Lt. Col. Lyndon Paniza, a spokesman for the 10th Infantry Division,that rebels abducted the trio after failing to kill the soldier in Sam Isidro town. Ka Boyet Makatindog, speaking for the NPA in Southern Mindanao, said rebels rescued the children and a woman who were abandoned by the soldier while fleeing from possible capture on a village where insurgents were helping victims of typhoon Bopha repair their houses. He said the children were handed safely over to village officials.

Makatindog said the soldier, who was traveling on a motorcycle, fled upon seeing the rebels, but not after exploding two fragmentation grenades that seriously wounded an NPA member. “The driver suddenly stopped, alighted, and left the two children and the woman as he ran away. Finding his behavior suspicious, the Red fighters tried to stop him and gave chase for about two to three kilometers. When the man threw them a grenade - which failed to explode - it was then that the Red fighters realized that he was an active AFP soldier. In defense, the Red fighters fired three shots. The man threw them a grenade the second time, hitting and seriously injuring one Red fighter,” he said in a statement sent to the regional newspaper Mindanao Examiner. AFP refers to the Armed Forces of the Philippines.

“The AFP has again maximized the incident to turn the tables to the NPA and cry children’s rights violations. The NPA fully abides with the regulations and policies concerning the rights and welfare of children,” Makatindog said. Paniza also said that rebels ambushed government troops transporting relief goods for typhoon victims in Davao del Norte’s Talaingod town, an accusations strongly denied by the NPA. “As the typhoon (Bopha) struck Kapalong, San Isidro, Laak, Loreto and Veruela, the Red fighters conducted immediate relief assistance, medical missions and repair of precious houses. It is outrageous to insinuate that, in the midst of Pablo tragedy, the NPA was callously on the prowl and still on active operations against the AFP,” Makatindog said.

“Along with the poor peasant and Lumad masses, the NPA faced the onslaught of the typhoon on December 4 and in the aftermath, the NPA fighters readily shifted its various military and comprehensive works and immediately attended to the needs of the suffering masses. To say that the NPA kidnapped children who were also victims of Pablo, is indeed, a claim that only the fascist and devious AFP can readily concoct and spin,” he added. The NPA has been fighting for the establishment of a communist state in the country.

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