RAPS VS. NPA. Colonel Edgardo de Leon, commander of Army's 403rd Infantry Division, personally appears before the Commission on Human Rights (CHR-10) in Northern Mindanao on Friday, March 29, 2019, to submit complaints against members of the New People's Army (NPA) in Bukidnon. Receiving the documents is CHR-10 director, lawyer Ivy Jeanne Abrina. (Photo courtesy of Army's 4ID)
CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY -- The Army's 403rd Infantry Brigade (403IB) under the 4th Infantry Division (4ID) on Friday filed charges of violation of the International Humanitarian Law against the New People's Army (NPA) before the Commission on Human Rights in Region 10 (CHR-10)
The NPA, armed wing of the Communist Party of the Philippines that is listed as a terrorist group by both the United States and European Union, is celebrating its 50th anniversary, today, March 29.
Brigade commander, Colonel Edgardo de Leon, filed the cases stemming from their alleged involvements in atrocities in Bukidnon province for the first quarter of 2019. He personally handed the information report to CHR 10 Office requesting for an investigation to determine the culpability of the NPA and their leaders.
“The NPA members, under the instruction of the CPP leaders have not stopped from attacking civilians and destroying civilian properties in violation of the International Humanitarian Law (IHL). They physically and psychologically harmed civilians. The farmers who have been working hard all day and even in the night so they could provide food on their table and send their children to school, were deprived of their livelihood," he said.
He said in the evening of March 15, 2019, a group of CPP-NPA members in Bukidnon burned a banana harvesting machine and two backhoes inside the compound of Davao Agricultural Ventures Corporation (DavCo) in Don Carlos, Bukidnon.
Incidentally, one of the burned backhoes is owned by Farmer's organization Nagkahiusang Mag-uuma Agrarian Reform Cooperative (NAMARCO).
NAMARCO members launched a protest rally calling on the NPA to compensate them for their destruction of their equipment.
A witness, in his judicial affidavit, stated that the equipment burned and destroyed by the NPA were never used by the military against the NPA. Thus, they are seeking compensation from the rebel group.
Similarly, on January 18, 2019, a boom spraying machine of Del Monte was burned by NPA in Lilingayon, Valencia City, Bukidnon.
Army’s 4th Infantry Division Commander, Major General Franco Nemesio Gacal, is demanding for CPP-NPA's compensation for the civilian properties that they destroyed.
"Kailangan managot ang mga gumawa ng krimen at bayaran ng CPP-NPA ang mga gamit ng sibilyan na kanilang sinira. Yan ay naaayon sa International Humanitarian Law. Mahigpit na pinagbabawal sa IHL ang pananakot sa sibilyan at ang paninira ng mga gamit ng sibilyan. Ito ay nilabag ng CPP-NPA at ang paglabag na ito ay dapat na makarating sa kaalaman ng CHR at sa mga ibat-ibang organization sa buong mundo na nagbabantay sa karapatan ng mga sibilyan," he said.
(Those responsible terrorists need to be prosecuted and the CPP must pay the civilian victims in compensation for the equipment that were destroyed by the NPA. Compensation is in accordance to the provisions of IHL. It is prohibited under the IHL to intimidate and harm civilians and to destroy civilian properties. We are bringing these incidents to the attention of the CHR and other international bodies that advocate respect for IHL.)
In another incident last February 14 in Sitio Green Valley, Barangay Dalwangan, Malaybalay City, members of the NPA allegedly terrorized women and children and left two soldiers brutally killed as manifested by post mortem report on the cadaver of the dead soldiers. The community never slept and was all emotional seeing their hard-fought community projects like the community stage and their assembly hall riddled with bullet holes.
Among the soldiers killed by the NPA is an Army team leader who lobbied for a farm-to-market road project for the community a few days before his death on Valentine's Day.
According to testimonies of civilians and fellow soldiers, the victim, identified only as Sgt. Cuaresma (Team Leader), was already "hors de combat" or no longer able to fight but the NPA, instead of leaving him alive for a chance to survive, was finished off, his body riddled with gunshots on the head and neck.
Under IHL, a wounded combatant must be spared. But the NPA did not respect IHL, and instead riddled his body with more bullets.
The information report on CPP-NPA's violation of the IHL was received by lawyer Ivy Jeanne Abrina, Regional Director of CHR-Region 10 (Northern Mindanao).
The Philippine Army lauded CHR10 in its most recent resolution citing that the NPA in Bukidnon violated IHL when a baby was killed after they ambushed a police vehicle in Tikalaan, Talakag, Bukidnon in mid-2018.
http://www.pna.gov.ph/articles/1066021
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