NPA video shows abducted police officer still alive

From the Manila Times (Jan 15): NPA video shows abducted police officer still alive

SHARIFF AGUAK, Maguindanao: The communist New Peoples’ Army (NPA) on Monday confirmed they have in their custody the police officer they abducted on December 28 and emailed a “proof of life” video to authorities and local journalists based in Kidapawan City, North Cotabato.

Rigoberto Sanchez, spokesman of the NPA Southern Mindanao Region, said Senior Inspector Menard Cui, deputy police chief of President Roxas municipality in North Cotabato and Magpet town resident, had been abducted and is being tried by the NPA kangaroo court “for his offenses against the masses.”

Sanchez said in a statement that Cui was abducted by “Red Fighters” of Mount Apo Sub-Regional Command Front 53 from a KTV bar at 8 p.m. on December 28 in Barangay Poblacion, President Roxas, North Cotabato.

The NPAs sent Cui’s video to prove he was still alive amid reports that he had been executed. However, as of this writing, The Manila Times is still trying to get a copy of the video to prove the veracity of the proof of life video.

In the video sent 15 days after his abduction, Cui was telling viewers that he is being treated well by his captors in the mountains of North Cotabato.

Sanchez also said that Cui was in good hands and they are treating him as a “prisoner of war.”
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The video showed cui appealing to the 39th Infantry Battalion to suspend the military operations against the NPA while he was still in captivity.

Kidapawan Bishop Jose Colin Bagaforo also appealed to the NPA to free Cui whose wife Florelie died on January 2 and will be buried on January 19. The relatives are hoping Cui would be able to attend his wife’s funeral in Magpet.

Bagaforo formed a team of religious leaders led by Fr. Pol Paracha, to facilitate Cui’s immediate release. It was Florelie whom the President Roxas police first informed about his abduction. Her health had deteriorated since then due to severe depression and she was rushed to the Kidapawan hospital where she died two days later.

 Felomina, Cui’s mother, said Florelie had been suffering from breast cancer.

http://www.manilatimes.net/npa-video-shows-abducted-police-officer-still-alive/374495/