Monday, February 19, 2007 Army engineers are combatants: NPA By Ben O. Tesiorna
THE New People's Army (NPA) defended their ambush on a group of army engineers who were putting up a water system in a hinterland barangay in Mabini town of Compostela Valley last February 15, saying that army engineers are combatants just like ordinary soldiers.
In a statement, the 3rd Pulang Bagani Company of the Merardo Arce Command-Southern Mindanao Regional Operations Command said its offensive against the Army's 534th Engineering Brigade last week was a legitimate tactical offensive that is fully in accord with international humanitarian law (IHL) and its covenants governing the conduct of war.
The rebel group said IHL specifies only medical personnel and chaplains as non-combatants, including those deprived of their liberty for reasons related to the armed conflict such as those wounded in action and those captured and should not be targeted for any military action.
The group said the ambushed soldiers were armed with high-powered rifles and were directly part of armed hostilities.
"They were riding on a Kennedy-type military jeep and were in fact tailed by three motorcycles where other armed enemy personnel were riding when ambushed. Also, the infrastructure projects implemented by the AFP are part and parcel of its civil-military operations under its all-out counterrevolutionary military offensive against the revolutionary forces called Oplan Bantay Laya Part II also dubbed as Oplan Kaunlaran," said rebel spokesperson Rigoberto F. Sanchez. (With PR)
