Police, CHR condemn NPA use of landmines

MANILA, Philippines - The Rizal police and the Commission on Human Rights (CHR) condemned yesterday the use by New People’s Army (NPA) rebels of landmines in an ambush that killed four Special Action Force (SAF) members and wounded seven others, including two civilians, in Antipolo City, Rizal the other day.

Landmines are banned under the Mine Ban Treaty signed by at least 156 states in Ottawa, Canada.

The use of anti-personnel mines is considered barbaric, and signatory states, including the Philippines, formally renounced its use, said Senior Superintendent Jonathan Miano, Rizal police director.

According to initial reports, some 50 to 70 communist rebels used landmines during the ambush.

“We strongly condemn the use of landmines by the communist rebels… The attack clearly shows that they are a terrorist organization,” Miano said.

“The NPA continuously uses these already banned inhuman weapons in the advancement of their guerrilla warfare killing and victimizing hundreds of military, police and civilians in their protracted struggle,” said Chief Superintendent Rolando Ano-nuevo, Calabarzon police director.

Anonuevo said the governments of the United States and several European countries declared the NPA rebels a terrorist group because of their continued use of landmines and their illegal activities like extortion and revolutionary taxation.

“It (use of landmines) is violative of both the human rights law and the international humanitarian law,” CHR chairperson Leila de Lima told The STAR.

She was referring to the Geneva Conventions and its additional protocols that limit the barbarity of war.

The Philippines is a signatory to the 1997 Convention on the Prohibition of the Use, Stockpiling, Production and Transfer of Anti-Personnel Mines and on their Destruction, otherwise known as the Mine Ban Treaty.

“Such an ambush is condemnable,” De Lima said.

The NPA’s Narciso Antazo Aramil Command yesterday claimed responsibility for the ambush in Barangay San Jose, Antipolo City.

The NPA command said the ambuscade was their revenge over the case of members of the “Morong 43” who are still languishing in jail.

Comprising the “Morong 43” are community health workers who the military has tagged as communist rebels.

A STAR source, however, said the ambush might be related to a piece of land in Sitio San Isidro, Barangay San Jose, which was formerly inhabited by Dumagat tribesmen.

The source alleged that SAF members sent 18 Dumagat families packing without relocating them or giving them financial help.

The Dumagat tribesmen had been in the area since 1975 until a SAF official, a certain Mendoza, allegedly told them to leave.

SAF officials, according to the source, are planning to construct a training school in the area.

Meanwhile, Anonuevo said five of the survivors – who together with the fatalities belonged to the 34th Special Action Command of the 3rd SAF Battalion based in Baras, Rizal – and civilians have identified three of the attackers.

He has directed Miano to file charges against the ambushers based on the testimonies of the SAF survivors and civilian witnesses.

PNP chief Director General Jesus Verzosa yesterday pinned a “Wounded Personnel Medal” on PO1 Arvin Infanta, one of the survivors, at the PNP General Hospital Medical Center.

Verzosa urged all policemen to be vigilant and prevent similar NPA attacks. – With Michael Punongbayan, Ed Amoroso and Cecille Suerte Felipe