Armed men believed to be members of the New People's Army (NPA) on Wednesday abducted a police officer in the town of Makilala in the province of North Cotabato in the Southern Philippines.
The Philippine National Police (PNP) in the province confirmed that Police Officer Briston Catalan who was assigned in the town's police outpost was abducted by suspected communist rebels.
Witnesses told police investigators in charge of the case said Catalan was on board on a motorcycle with his two children when the abduction happened. The abductors poked their rifles at Catalan who had no choice but to leave his two children behind to board the motorbike of the abductors.
Police authorities last week arrested a leader of the communist rebels in the same town. Seized from the communist leader were M-16 rifle and sets of Improvised Explosive Device.
The police officer was taking his two children two school when armed men stopped him and eventually abducted him on Wednesday. The police is now mobilizing their intelligence branch to determine as to where Catalan was brought.
North Cotabato is a province known to have bases and outposts occupied by NPA rebels, the oldest insurgency group operating in Southeast Asia.
The Philippine government and the NPA held a series of peace dialogues early this year but Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte said he was no longer interested of holding peace dialogues with the left-leaning rebels because they kept on attacking military and police detachments.
