Filipino death toll from Algeria siege rises to eight

MANILA: An eighth person from the Philippines has been confirmed killed in last week’s siege by Islamic militants of a remote natural gas plant in Algeria, the government said yesterday.

The eighth Philippine fatality is a male, said foreign department spokesman Raul Hernandez, without naming the victim.

“His body was positively identified by our team in Algeria. We still have one unaccounted for,” Hernandez said.

The Philippine government has said 12 Filipino workers survived the 72-hour hostage drama, including four still recovering from their wounds at an Algiers hospital.

Dozens of foreigners were killed during a four-day stand-off that ended in a bloody showdown with Algerian commandos on Saturday.

Former rebel group gives up firearms 

BAGUIO CITY: The “decommissioned” paramilitary Cordillera Peoples Liberation Army (CPLA), a splinter group of the New Peoples Army in 1986, surrendered at least 11 more assault rifles to the government.

The firearms raised to 159 the total number of guns the CPLA turned in since the start of its  decommissioning last year when it forged a pact with the government.

Army Colonel Loreto Magundayao, spokesperson of the 5th Infantry Division of the Philippine Army in Camp Melchor dela Cruz in Upi, Gamu, Isabela, said seven M16 assault rifles, three M14 rifles and one Carbine were turned in to Colonel Roger Salvador at the 501st Infantry Brigade headquarters in Tabuk City, Kalinga, on Thursday.

The firearms, he said, will be kept at the Camp Dela Cruz in Isabela.

The pact between the CPLA and the government was pursuant to Administrative Order Number 18 and Executive Order Number 49 of President Benigno Aquino III, which laid down the government’s initiatives with “threat groups”. Other factions of the CPLA, however, particularly the group of former Bucloc town, Abra Mayor Mailed Molina opposed the peace pact, saying those factions that agreed with the government were “counterfeits”.          Agencies