Two policemen escaped from the communist New People's Army (NPA) who abducted them less than a week ago in Surigao del Sur province in Mindanao, police said on Friday.Chief Superintendent Getulio Napenas, the regional police chief, commended officers Ronald Allan Munez and Nemuel Espana for their presence of mind in taking advantage of lax security to escape.
Napenas said Munez seized the AK-47 rifle of their lone guard when he fell asleep and fired the weapon to discourage their pursuers. To further confuse the rebels, Munez and Espana decided to separate as they escaped. Munez, he said, ran directly toward the police station in the town of Loreto, Surigao del Sur and got there shortly before 11 p.m. on Thursday.
Concerned residents of a village helped hide Espana who was recovered at dawn on Friday.
Heavily armed NPA insurgents nabbed the two policemen while they were returning to the Loreto police station after investigating a hacking incident in a remote village late on Sunday night.
Meanwhile, security forces engaged about 30 suspected NPA insurgents in the town of Naga, Zamboanga Sibugay province also in Mindanao on Thursday afternoon.