SOLCOM condemns Reds’ attacks on police

From the Philippine News Agency (Feb 23): SOLCOM condemns Reds’ attacks on police

The Southern Luzon Command (SOLCOM) has condemned the attacks of Communist rebels against personnel of the Philippine National Police (PNP) in Antipolo City and Baras, Rizal province in separate incidents this week.

“The PNP is one of our partners in attaining peace. We will pursue these terrorists at all costs to ensure that there is justice for the wounded personnel of the PNP and that the safety of the civilian populace will not be jeopardized,” SOLCOM commander, Lt. Gen. Danilo Pamonag, said in a statement released Friday.

On Feb. 18, CPP-NPA terrorists (CNTs) ambushed members of the police Special Action Force in Barangay San Jose, Antipolo City, where an improvised explosive device (IED) was recovered.

On Feb. 21, another group of the Police Mobile Force Company of the Rizal Provincial Police command also encountered IEDs that blew up on both sides of the Marcos Highway in Barangay Pinugay in Baras, Rizal. Five police officers sustained minor wounds in both attacks and they are recovering.

The SOLCOM also stressed that the Philippines is a signatory to the Geneva Convention and the Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons, where Protocol II prohibits and restricts the use of mines, booby traps and other devices.

It also emphasized the provisions in Chapter 3, Section 4.25.iv of Republic Act No. 9851 or the "Philippine Act on Crimes Against International Humanitarian Law, Genocide, and Other Crimes Against Humanity".

This section stipulates that employing means of warfare are prohibited under international law, such as “weapons, projectiles and material and methods of warfare which are of the nature to cause superfluous injury or unnecessary suffering or which are inherently indiscriminate in violation of the international law of armed conflict”, and thus landmines and improvised explosive devices are banned.

http://www.pna.gov.ph/articles/1026262