By Roy Ramos
ZAMBOANGA CITY, Philippines
Three policemen abducted by communist rebels in the southern Philippines were released Thursday, local officials said.
The trio had been held for three months after being captured by the New People's Army in Surigao del Norte province on Mindanao island.
They were released to Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte, a former government national security adviser and chairman of the Regional Peace and Order Council, at midday after he flew by helicopter to a guerilla camp, his spokesman Manny Pinol said in a statement.
Sources close to Duterte said no ransom was paid.
Duterte reiterated an appeal for the national government to end the 42-year communist insurgency. "We have been fighting our fellow Filipinos for the last 42 years,” he said. “Would it take another 42 years before we finally put an end to this?"
Over the years, Duterte has served as an intermediary when soldiers and police have been abducted by the communist rebels, who have been waging one of Asia’s longest running insurgencies. According to the military it has claimed more than 3,000 lives in the last eight years.
The group was party to a peace deal with the government, also signed by the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, in March last year.
