Injured	Killed
0	2

Date: 10 June 2010
Source: http://www.gmanews.tv/story/193182/communist-rebels-abduct-execute-2-in-mindanao

ZAMBOANGA CITY, Philippines – Communist rebels abducted and killed two people in separate attacks in southern Philippines, the military said on Thursday. 

Army Captain Emmanuel Garcia, spokesman of the 10th Infantry Division, said New People’s Army (NPA) rebels seized Alfredo Mia, 57, in Davao City’s Paquibato District Tuesday and that his body was found later in Fatima village. 

Garcia said 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.

On the same day, rebels also abducted and killed a village leader, Kito Melody, in Sultan Kudarat’s Columbio town. Melody’s bullet-riddled corpse was 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 killings. 

Garica said 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 waging a decades-old war for the establishment of a communist state in the country. Peace talks with Manila collapsed in 2004 after rebel leaders accused President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo of reneging on several agreements, among them was the unconditional release of political prisoners languishing in jails without formal criminal charges. – Al Jacinto/KBK, GMANews.TV