NPA rebel in Compostela Valley caught planting IED

From the Sun Star-Davao (Jun 21): NPA rebel in Compostela Valley caught planting IED 

GOVERNMENT troops arrested an alleged member of a communist group after he was caught in the act of planting an improvised explosive device (IED) in Compostela Valley on Sunday, June 18.

 

In a statement of the 60th Infantry Batallion (IB) on Tuesday, June 20, the apprehended rebel was identified as Randy Martin Magadan alias Andrew, 24, a resident of Barangay Bollucan, Laak, Compostela Valley.

 

The incident occurred a day after the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) directed its armed wing to refrain from conducting offensives.

 

 Magadan was caught laying an IED at around 8 a.m., Sunday along a common route at Kilometer 26, Barangay Kidawa, Laak, Compostela Valley Province.

 

Magadan is the supply officer of the Pulang Bagani Command 4 under the Southern Mindanao Regional Committee of the New People's Army (NPA).

 

The combined operatives of the 72nd Infantry Battalion and 60th IB were conducting routine patrol and security operations at the area when they encountered Magadan and arrested him.

 

The army unit turned over the arrested NPA member to the Laak Municipal Police for blotter procedure and filing of appropriate charges and subjected him for a medical check-up to the Compostela Valley Provincial Hospital (Laak).

 

Charges are being prepared against the suspect for violating Republic Act (RA) 9516 or the law on the illegal possession, manufacture, dealing, acquisition or disposition of firearms, ammunition and explosives.

 

His act was also a clear violation of the Comprehensive Agreement on the Respect for Human Rights and International Humanitarian Law or CARHRIHL (part III, Article II, 15), to which the Communist Party of the Philippines-NPA-NDF is a co-signatory, and RA 9851 or the Philippine Act on Crimes Against International Humanitarian Law, Genocide, and Other Crimes Against Humanity.

 

 It strictly prohibits "all forms of economic blockades, indiscriminate bombings, shelling, strafing, gunfire and the use of landmines" since it has the "nature to cause superfluous injury or unnecessary suffering or which are inherently indiscriminate in violation of the international law of armed conflict.

 http://www.sunstar.com.ph/davao/local-news/2017/06/21/npa-rebel-compostela-valley-caught-planting-ied-548633