2 of 3 abducted ‘health workers’ in Tarlac released

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    TARLAC CITY—Two of three volunteer health workers abducted by eight bonnet-clad men on May 19 were released Monday night according to the Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (Bayan).

    Dave dela Peña, chair of Bayan Tarlac, said Juanito Carabeo along with Filipino-American Melissa Roxas and teenager John Edward Jandoc, was taken from a farmer’s house at Sitio Bagong Sikat in Barangay Kapanikian in La Paz town more than 20 kilometers from here by suspected government soldiers.

    The abductors, all armed and wearing ski masks, arrived on two motorcycles and a Kia Besta van without a license plate, reports from Karapatan said.

    Dela Peña said Carabeo, 54, called his relatives at around 10 p.m. yesterday to tell them he was already home in Bataan and that they should return as soon as possible.

    He said the relatives had been staying in Tarlac since May 20, the day an anonymous person texted them that Carabeo was missing.

    After Carabeo’s phone call, the relatives “happily” journeyed back to Bataan, Dela Peña said.

    Earlier the same day, the human rights group Karapatan was informed by the family of Roxas that she was back and resting in her home in Quezon City.

    Roxas, 31, an American citizen of Filipino descent, is a member of Habi Arts and Bayan USA. She is the niece of Court of Appeals Justice Vicente Roxas. At the time of her abduction she had been working as a volunteer health worker in Tarlac.

    Dela Peña said they are still trying to determine if Jandoc, 16, is also back in his home in Aurora province.

    While relatives of the victims suspect the military for the abduction, Major Rosendo Armas, information officer of the Armed Forces of the Philippines’ Northern Luzon Command based at Camp Servillano Aquino in Barangay San Miguel here, said the military would help locate the missing individuals.

    Armas also denied the military had a hand in abduction.

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