NPAs to face criminal charges, HRVs

KIDAPAWAN CITY -Charges of attempted murder and carnapping are being readied against 16 communist guerillas believed behind the recent ambush of government troops in a hinterland town in North Cotabato. Captain Manuel Gatus, chief of the civil military operations of the Army’s 57thInfantry Battalion, said they will use as evidences against the perpetrators the getaway motorcycle they recovered on Saturday in Barangay Noa, Magpet, and the affidavits of wounded soldiers, Cpl. Nuran Rajabuayan and Pfc. Wilfredo Ligsay, both of Charlie Company of 57thIB. Rajabuayan and Ligsay were hit in different parts of their bodies when members of the New Peoples’ Army (NPA) Front 51 Cotabato-Bukidnon operational command ambushed them on June 10 in Barangay Noa. Gatus said the rebels allegedly snatched Ligsay’s issued motorbike as they withdrew towards the hinterlands of Magpet but buried it, at least 500 meters away from the ambush site. The military official, however, refused to identify names of the perpetrators whose identities were provided by some of the witnesses and informants in the village. Meantime, the Army is also set to file violations of the Comprehensive Agreement on the Respect for Human Rights and the International Humanitarian Law (CARHRIHL), a document signed on March 16, 1998 in the Hague, Netherlands by the Philippine government and the National Democratic Front (NDF). Gatus said that under the agreement, each party agrees to uphold, protect, and promote human rights, and the principles of the International Humanitarian Law. The ambush on June 10, he explained, was clear violation of CARHRIHL as the rebels attacked their men who, at that time, were not on a ‘fighting mode.’In fact, he said, the soldiers wore civilian clothes without guns when they traveled back to the Poblacion of Magpet. The complaints would be filed before the joint GRP-NDFP ceasefire committee, he said. We condemn the act.By the looks of it, the NPAs are no longer respecting the agreement.This is already beyond their ideologies.These are already criminal acts.They also clearly violate human rights, not only of the soldiers but also of the many innocent civilians,” he said. He cited as basis the alleged summary execution on June 6 of a certain Larry Embac, former rebel commander who yielded to authorities in 1986. The NPAs admitted it was their group that sentenced to death Embac for his ‘sins’ against the organization.Embac was killed in front of his wife and two of his five children in Barangay Labu-o, President Roxas. Why do the rebels have to kill their target in front of his children?Isn’t this a violation of the rights of the children?What about their trauma? Will they counsel these children,” asked Gatus.