AFP reaffirms diplomacy over NPA atrocities

CAMP AQUINO, Tarlac City, September 1, 2011-The Northern Luzon Command (NOLCOM) of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) reaffirms its commitment to uphold human rights in all of its operations here in Central and Northern Luzon.

Ltc Rosendo D Armas, chief of the AFP 1^st civil  relations group said that  the military troops in their area of responsibilities (AOR) remain committed in performing their mission towards peace and development despite the recent atrocities committed by the New People’s Army (NPA) which is the armed wing of the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP).

“Every Filipino wants peace and so with the soldiers who are at the forefront in fighting threat groups inimical to a peaceful community,” Armas said. 

“It is just unfortunate why the spate of atrocities and criminalities of the CPP/NPA happen at a time when the peace negotiations are ongoing. Not only the Chairman of the Government Negotiating Panel observed that the peace talks were being taken advantage of by the CPP/NPA to demand the release of their detained leaders but also the public who constantly monitor the development in the peace efforts.”

CPP/NPA recent atrocities included the kidnapping of Mayor Henry Dano of Lingig, Surigao del Sur and two military escorts; the NPA attack on a police station in Mobo, Masbate; the killing of an Army volunteer during a clash between government troops and NPA rebels in Barangay Taposo, Candelaria, Zambales; NPA raid of a sugarcane plantation in a remote village in San Mariano, Isabela which is being developed for a bio-ethanol plant; foiled harassment and ambush of Bayanihan patrols team in Aurora; NPA held captive four (4) personnel of the Bureau of Jail Management and Penology (BJMP) in Bukidnon; and a long list of other atrocities committed by the CPP/NPA in the past.

“These acts of violence of the CPP/NPA violated the provisions of the Comprehensive Agreement with Respect to Human Rights and International Humanitarian Law (CARHRIHL),” Armas furthered, adding that the government remains firm in their stand in achieving a lasting peace despite the recent atrocities committed by the leftist group.

NOLCOM spokesperson Captain Jovily Carmen Cabading said that in the spirit of bayanihan, we can only hope and pray that the NPAs will finally be enlightened to go back to the fold of the law.

She said that the Aquino administration is doing everything for the ‘peacetalk’ to bear fruit. The past NPA atrocities and their impossible demands did more harm than good.

In the end, “let us all be reminded that in prolonging this insurgency, it is not the soldiers, nor the NPAs, who lose. It is always the innocent civilians who are caught in the middle of the crossfire,” Cabading said. (Jason de Asis)