Palace condemns killing of four 'unarmed' soldiers in Davao attack

From the Philippine News Agency (Nov 6): Palace condemns killing of four 'unarmed' soldiers in Davao attack

Malacanang on Tuesday condemned the attack by armed group in Sitio Cinco, Barangay Mapula, Paquibato District, Davao City over the weekend killing four unarmed soldiers. "We do condemn what had happened to four of our soldiers. And we have to stress -- the soldiers were unarmed, that makes it all the more condemnable -- what had happened to them," said Deputy Presidential Spokesperson Abigail Valte at the press briefing. Valte said the soldiers were not on any mission but were attending a peace and development seminar. "The requisite assistance will be provided by the military to their units," she said. Valte, however, refused to comment on whether the perpetrators were members of the communist New People's Army. "We will hold off on the speculations on the affiliation of the perpetrators. At this point, nobody has confirmation on whether the perpetrators are actually affiliated with a particular group," she said.... The Philippine Army earlier condemned the brutal attack on four unarmed soldiers in Sitio Cinco, Barangay Mapula, Paquibato District, Davao City Sunday afternoon allegedly perpetrated by the NPA rebels. "We want all of our peace partners to condemn the NPA's dastardly act of killing four unarmed, off-duty soldiers," said PA Spokesman Major Harold Cabunoc. Cabunoc stressed that the attack was a clear violation of the International Humanitarian Law and Republic Act No. 9851 or "An Act Defining and Penalizing Crimes Against International Humanitarian Law, Genocide and other Crimes Against Humanity." "It is high time for the Filipino people to be united in renouncing the NPA's continuous use of violence to advance its interests. We must never allow the NPA to freely carry out its violent attacks because this will never end our various problems," he said.

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