Friday, October 05, 2007 Mayor says NPA plans to kidnap his son
PULUPANDAN Mayor Magdaleno "Magsy" Peña revealed Thursay an intelligence report stating that as soon as the Supreme Court orders him to return his son Harry to his former lover, Plinky Recto, in Manila, the New People's Army (NPA) will kidnap the boy.
"This is possible considering that Plinky has already tied up with Gabriela, a women organization tagged as one of the legal fronts of the NPA," Peña told Sun.Star-Bacolod in phone interview Thursday night.
He, however, stressed that no matter what will happen, he won't return his son to Recto especially now that there's a plan to kidnap him.
But if the Supreme Court will insist on having his son returned to his mother, and if the kidnapping will happen, then it's the High Tribunal that is to be blamed, Peña said.
Peña also dismissed the Army report saying one of his loved ones will soon be kidnapped by the rebels in order to force him to withdraw the charges he filed against Fr. Frank Fernandez alias Ka Frank, the NPA's top leader in Negros island, in relation to the May 30 ambush against him in Ubay, Pulupandan.
In a statement, 1Lt. Gil Marquez of the Army's 32nd Civil Relation Unit based in Camp Martin Delgado in Iloilo City said that based on their intelligence report, NPA rebels are planning to kidnap one of Peña's loved one in order to pressure the mayor to withdraw the criminal case he filed against Fernandez.
Fernandez was included among the more than 50 individuals who were charged with murder for two counts and frustrated murder for four counts by the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) in Bacolod before the Negros Occidental Prosecutor's Office Monday.
But Peña said, "The NPA couldn't kidnap any of his loved one in Pulupandan because they can't enter the mansion."
"I have more than 100 body guards right now and so they can't enter our place or else they’ll be killed," he added.
Aside from Peña, the Army also warned the police, military and public officials in Negros of the plan of CPP-NPA to attack the Bureau of Jail Management and Penology in Guihulngan town in Oriental Negros to rescue a lady comrade, a certain Emilia Quirante, currently spokeswoman of the CPP-NPA's Larangan Guerila 1 (LG1).
Quirante was detained for illegal possession of firearms.
Marquez also said that military in Western Visayas is also constantly monitoring the rebels' propaganda movement as well as their recruitment operations targeting minors and village folk both in Panay and Negros.
In Panay area, Marquez said the CPP-NPA is now being led by a certain Rene Francisco using aliases like Ka Bukay, Ka Delton, and Ka Richard.
In Aklan, Marquez said, "Recruitment is being done by the CPP-NPA's front organizations as revealed by the masses." (EASD)
