NPAs seize Air Force chaplain

Suspected communist rebels kidnapped an Air Force captain in Mindoro Occidental last week, officials said yesterday.

Five heavily armed men seized Capt. Melchor Fernando last Jan. 5 in Sitio Igsus, Barangay Tubili in Paluan town, according to provincial administrator David Colarina.

Lt. Col. Eduardo Oban, Air Force spokesman, confirmed the abduction.

Fernando, chaplain of the Air Force's 100th Training Wing based at San Fernando Base in Lipa City, Batangas, was vacationing in his farm in Paluan when the armed men, believed to be members of the communist New People's Army, barged into his house and dragged him to a waiting motorboat.

"The armed men said they would just be talking with Fernando for awhile and that they would return the chaplain after a few minutes, but the chaplain never returned," Colarina said, quoting a police report on the incident.

Mindoro Occidental Gov. Josephine Sato said her office has received feelers that Fernando would be freed soon. His abductors have so far not made any demands.

"Capt. Fernando is a non-combatant so I am appealing to his abductors to release him as soon as possible," Sato said in a radio interview.

Police and military agents are already conducting operations to locate and rescue Fernando.

Apart from Fernando, communist rebels are still holding hostage Army Maj. Noel Buan and Chief Inspector Abelardo Martin, police chief of Dolores, Quezon, who were separately abducted last year.

A team composed of Sen. Loren Legarda and two Catholic bishops are currently holding talks with communist leaders living in exile in the Netherlands over the release of the two NPA captives.

Communist rebels have vowed to intensify assaults and kidnapping activities against government troops following last year's collapse of peace talks aimed at ending one of Asia's longest running leftist insurgencies. - With wire reports