Malacañang to study ceasefire call from abducted mayor’s wife

Malacañang will study carefully a reported call by the wife of abducted Lingig town in Surigao del Sur Mayor Henry Dano for a ceasefire with the communist New People’s Army. Presidential spokesman Edwin Lacierda said the Palace will consult people on the ground first on the ceasefire as requested by Dano’s wife Amelia. “We have to study the supposed request. Of course we would welcome a ceasefire but based on recent events, we will have to be careful about it," Lacierda said on government-run dzRB radio. He did not elaborate. When told that Mrs. Dano wanted a ceasefire for her husband’s safety, he said, “we would defer to people on the ground for that assessment." On August 6, New People's Army rebels seized Mayor Dano, together with his escorts, at his house in Sabang Village. On August 19, Amelia claimed the NPA wanted to prisoner swap for the freedom of her husband. But a peace negotiator of the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP)-led National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) on August 23 dismissed as "foolish" government's accusation of "blackmail," referring to rumored NPA prisoner-swap demand to free the mayor. Mrs. Dano’s recent call for ceasefire came nearly a week after suspected NPA rebels attacked a mining site in Surigao del Norte, where several mining vehicles and equipment were burned. On Saturday, Bombo Radyo Davao reported Mrs. Dano called anew for the ceasefire to ensure her husband’s safe release. Bombo Radyo reported she particularly wanted the ceasefire in Monkayo (Compostela Valley), Cateel and Boston (Davao Oriental), and Lingig, Bislig and Trento (Agusan del Sur) until Oct. 11. Last September 30, the Communist Party of the Philippines ordered Dano’s release, saying it was a “political decision to suspend the judicial proceedings against the municipal mayor as an affirmative response to his issuance of an apology." It also said the release is ordered as well as a “humanitarian consideration to the appeals made by his family and the representations made by well-meaning groups and individuals." On the other hand, the Southern Mindanao Regional Party Committee said the order is a “unilateral exercise of revolutionary political authority by the CPP as the ruling party of the People’s Democratic Government." The CPP claimed Dano was “arrested" last August 6, amid claims he has a private armed group and was linked to alleged human rights violations. — LBG, GMA News