PNP won't talk with NPA for Cui's release

KIDAPAWAN CITY – Police in North Cotabato will never negotiate with a rebel group that abducted a town’s deputy chief in the province, said a top police officer.Superintendent Leo Ajero, deputy chief of operations of the Cotabato Police Provincial Office (CPPO), said it is never their policy to talk or work on the release of any of their men who would be held captive by any rebel group.Also, the PNP will never exchange a captive police to a criminal element that they apprehended, especially so when the prisoner is a member of the rebel organization.Reports are circulating that the New Peoples’ Army (NPA) Front 53 wanted to release Inspector Menard Cui, deputy chief of police of the President Roxas, in lieu of a certain Mylan Andas, a tribal leader who was apprehended by the police in Magpet town in 2017.Andas, reports added, held a top post in the NPA in North Cotabato. No, that won’t happen. We will never exchange somebody who has long been wanted by law to our colleague who was abducted by the NPA, said Ajero in a press conference held at Dawn’s Café here, on March 9.But Ajero said they will never interfere with the recent negotiations being done by the Diocese of Kidapawan and some non-government organizations (NGOs) for Cui’s safe release from his captors. We do appreciate such initiatives. But again, on the side of the PNP, that can never happen, he stressed.Cui was abducted in Barangay Tuael, President Roxas on December 28, 2017.Cui was having a drinking session with friends from one of the KTV bars in President Roxas town when at least five men, who identified themselves as NPA members, snatched and brought him to the mountains in North Cotabato.Cui’s wife and his father-in-law died while he is still in the hands of his captors. MALU CADELINA MANAR