OPAPP: NPA rebels violated human rights in Negros ambush

BACOLOD CITY, Philippines  â€” The Office of the Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process (OPAPP), in its investigation, has found that the NPA, in killing eight civilians and a policeman in an ambush at Brgy. Puso in La Castellana town of Negros Occidental last Jan. 27, had violated both the human rights and the International Humanitarian Law (IHL).

Lawyer Jaime Arroyo, secretariat head of the OPAPP-Government of the Philippines monitoring committee, said the NPA’s admission of the crime, pictures, media reports and the testimonies of eyewitnesses interviewed in. Puso last Tuesday, would prove that the NPA had violated human rights of the civilians and the IHL.

“What we have seen is a case against rebels having ambushed a truck full of civilians and a few police officers,” Arroyo said.

Wikipedia defines IHL, or the law regulating the conduct of armed conflicts, as the conduct and responsibilities of belligerent nations, neutral nations and individuals engaged in warfare, in relation to each other and to protected persons (civilians). Serious violations of IHL are called “war crimes.”

Arroyo, who did the investigation with OPAPP legal consultant, Norman Carreon, at the massacre site, had talked to the survivors and families of the victims for documentation on the peace process.

“We came here upon learning of the ambush. Two events that transpired confirmed our initial suspicion that there was a violation of human rights and IHL,” citing eyewitnesses accounts that the victims were shot at close range and the ambushers shouting “Mabuhay ang NPA (Long live, NPA!),” Arroyo said. “This is an attack on civilians which is specifically prohibited under the IHL,” he said.

These information will be entered into the OPAPP records and data base, said Arroyo who, with two other lawyers, 303rd Infantry Brigade commander Col. Oscar Lactao, acting Negros Occ. Police director Sr. Supt. Celestino Guara and the two wounded policemen—PO3 Constantino Villegas and PO2 Jeffrey Alvarez—met with Governor Alfredo Marañon Jr. for a briefing on the agency’s findings of the probe.

Arroyo said OPAPP, an attached agency of the Office of the President, has no active role in the filing of charges against violators of HR and IHL, and can only advise the civilians or the military and police to file charges under this law. “We are neither the DOJ nor the CHR, but we can supply the data in pursuing the case,” he said, adding that the more appropriate criminal charges in this case would be under Republic Act 9158, which punishes war crimes.

Guara said that, last Tuesday afternoon, the police filed at the prosecutor’s office nine counts of murder and 14 counts of frustrated murder against about 20 rebels suspected to be behind the ambush, based on accounts of the two wounded policemen.

The respondents were members of the second squad of the Casimba Platoon of the “Larangan Guerilya 1” headed by Magno Flores, said Guara adding that more charges for violation of the IHL will be be filed against them. The list of respondents was incomplete yet, and more will be added when their identities will be revealed during the continuing investigation, he said.

As for Romeo Nanta, a high ranking rebel whom the police and military also tagged as the mastermind behind the ambush, Guara said they will soon find out if Nanta was among the “planners.” Nanta, commander of the Regional Operations Command of the NPA in Negros island, was earlier freed from jail after posting bail of P100,000 for robbery-in-band charges.

Lactao yesterday said they will give more assistance to the survivors and the families of the fatalities, in coordination with the provincial government, other LGUs and civil society organizations.  He reiterated his call to the NPA leaders to surrender their men involved in the ambush, because the IHL demands that perpetrators should be surrendered to the competent authority. (FREEMAN)