Freed soldiers go through tests, debriefing

From the Sun Star-Cagayan de Oro (Jan 5): Freed soldiers go through tests, debriefing

TO ensure their wellbeing, the two soldiers who were recently released by the New People’s Army (NPA) are undergoing multi-tests while they are recuperating, a military official said.

The soldiers, Private First Class Marnel Cinches and Private First Class Jerrel Yorong, are still undergoing psychological, physical and medical examinations and assessment and debriefing while confined at the army hospital in Camp Evangelista, Barangay Patag, here, said Captain Patrick Martinez, acting spokesman of the Philippine Army’s 4th Infantry Division (4ID).

After the battery of tests, Martinez said the military would determine whether Cinches and Yorong are still fit for active army duty.

They were released by the NPA’s north central Mindanao regional committee in the hinterland village of St. Peter in Malaybalay after a 10-day walk last December 26 just as the Maoist rebels celebrated their 46th founding anniversary.

Martinez said one of the soldiers had typhoid fever when they were turned over by the NPA’s custodial force to the third-party negotiators led by Bukidnon Governor Jose Maria Zubiri, Bishop Felixberto Calang of the Iglesia Filipina Independiente (IFI), and Misamis Oriental Provincial Administrator Edmundo Pacamalan Jr.

Martinez said the psychological test is necessary to ensure Cinches and Yorong had not been indoctrinated by the insurgents considering they spent more than four months in the hands of the NPA.

He said the military has to make sure the soldiers are still capable of serving their country before they are redeployed.

Better shape

Cinches’s sister Felma Pimentel told Sun.Star Cagayan de Oro by phone Sunday that when she visited his brother on January 1, he is in better shape.

“Nagdula-dula pa man gani siya sa iyang anak (He was even playing with his child). Dili man siya luya (He isn’t weak),” Pimentel said.

Cinches, she added, was also negative of typhoid fever when he was initially checked by the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) during the turnover of the two soldiers to the third-party negotiators at St. Peter on December 26, as he displayed physical fitness, but he was advised to take vitamins, especially iron.

She said she didn’t notice anything unusual in Cinches’s demeanor to indicate that his attitude has changed while being held captive by the NPA.

Pimentel has known his brother as a serious type, but he could also be funny to his family and close friends at times.

She said Cinches’s wife, who is a teacher at Valencia City, is taking care of his brother at the 4ID’s medical facility.

She added that the Cinches are planning on taking a vacation in Aloran, Misamis Occidental, his hometown, once he is discharged from the hospital.

http://www.sunstar.com.ph/cagayan-de-oro/local-news/2015/01/05/freed-soldiers-go-through-tests-debriefing-385007