Wife of cop held captive by NPA appeals for his safe return

COTABATO CITY -- The wife of a police officer still being held captive by the communist guerillas has appealed to the group to release him unharmed.Jessa Catalan, wife of Police Officer 1 Bristol Catalan of the Makilala Police, said two weeks after her husband’s abduction by members of the New Peoples’ Army (NPA), she has yet to hear updates from the group. No calls, no text, no message, whatsoever. I face a blank wall, said Jessa.PO1 Catalan is the family’s breadwinner, according to Jessa. We have no other source of income, except his salary as being a policeman. I don’t know how to make both ends meet, she stressed.Also, the trauma brought about by the abduction made Catalan’s children to decide to stop going to school.On August 14, Catalan was driving his motorcycle when six armed men, who introduced themselves as NPA members, flagged him down along Purok-4, Barangay Katipunan in Kidapawan City.Catalan was traveling with his two children who witnessed how the armed men spirited their father away after telling them they’re going to bring him somewhere to undergo an interrogation.Catalan, a member of the Makilala Police, was believed among the policemen who joined the Army in arresting on August 1 a top communist guerilla leader whose operations include the town of Makilala in North Cotabato and Bansalan in Davao del Sur.However, the Makilala PNP and the Cotabato Provincial Police Office (CPPO) refused to confirm such report.On August 24, Makilala Mayor Rudy Caoagdan appealed to the group holding Catalan as captive to release him to the family.Caoagdan believed Catalan has done nothing wrong against the guerilla movement. It’s not a sin to become a policeman. Catalan has been serving the PNP for several decades now and has been very committed to his job, said the mayor.Catalan is the second police officer in North Cotabato the NPA has abducted since 2016.In June 1, 2016, they kidnapped Police Officer 1 Romeo Solana of the intelligence unit of the CPPO. A month later, his body was recovered in a remote village in the city.