Davao City, Philippines  - Two police officers and a soldier were seized Friday by communist rebels in the southern Philippines, a police report said.

The victims were abducted when they stopped at an illegal checkpoint set up by around 20 heavily armed guerrillas in Monkayo town in Compostela Valley province, 930 kilometres south of Manila.

Major General Reynaldo Mapagu, an army division commander, said pursuit operations were being conducted to free the abducted government troops.

"The communist rebels are certainly demoralized and defeated that is why they have to resort to kidnapping and eventually use their victims as shields," he said.

Communist rebels have been fighting the government since the late 1960s, making the movement one of the longest-running leftist insurgencies in Asia.(dpa)