Captive treated like VIP

Communist guerrillas have freed a Philippine town mayor and his four bodyguards after 12 days of jungle captivity in which the rebels interrogated him and he lived in constant fear.

Mayor Roberto Luna and his security guards - two Army soldiers and two policemen - were turned over by about 30 heavily armed New People's Army guerrillas yesterday in a mountain jungle in southern Davao Oriental province.

The rebels freed Luna, who has diabetes, on humanitarian grounds.

Luna said the rebels treated their prisoners "like VIPs", although he constantly feared being bitten by snakes or being hit by gunfire.