Friday, July 04, 2008 NPA to military: Release our missing comrade
THE underground New People's Army (NPA) has called on the Philippine Army to surface their missing comrade, citing as basis provisions and rulings on international conventions regarding captives in civil wars.
Dom Pantaleon, spokesperson of the NPA Pulang Mt. Talinis Front Command, said the continued "involuntary disappearing" of 46-year-old rebel Calixto "Ka Manong" Alfante is in complete violation of the 1949 Geneva Conventions governing combatants and hors' d combat (or combatants deemed already protected by international humanitarian law by virtue of arrest or surrender).
Alfante was allegedly abducted by elements of the 79th Infantry Battalion in sitio Kabalanusan, Barangay Dobdob in Valencia town last June 11.
The Philippine government is one of the signatories to the said international document initiated by the United Nations.
Pantaleon challenged Lieutenant Colonel Erwin Neri, commander of the 79th Infantry Battalion under the 302nd Brigade, to surface the NPA member.
"We demand him to immediately surface our captured comrade, and grant visitation rights to the family of Ka Manong," said Pantaleon.
He said the NPA spends most of its time performing non-combat duties, namely: building the revolutionary peasant mass base, organizing the various underground groups, assisting the people in their anti-feudal struggles, and participating directly in production work.
"We dare the 79th IB's Lieutenant Colonel Erwin Neri to re-read seriously the 1949 Geneva Conventions, which forbid any and all forms of ill-treatment of captives consistent with humanitarian considerations" the NPA spokesperson emphasized.
Alfante prior to joining the underground movement was once a village councilor in Barangay Libertad Sur, Sagbayan, Bohol province.
The 1949 Geneva Conventions and even the various United Nations conventions on human rights forbid the torture and involuntary disappearance even of those suspected, in the absence of judicial determination, to be members of armed revolutionary groups like the NPA.
Pantaleon also said the abduction and continued disappearance of Alfante is proof that certain reforms initiated by the Supreme Court (SC) has failed to stem the tide of political killings, involuntary disappearances, and other human rights violations by the "mercenary-like AFP" as mandated by the Arroyo regime's Oplan Bantay Laya (OBL).
The SC's recent introduction of the writs of amparo and habeas data, purportedly to complement the old and toothless writ of habeas corpus, has failed to prevent the 302nd Infantry Brigade's Colonel Yano from being "in a state of denial" - as what United National special rapporteur Philip Alston earlier described the AFP leadership, vis-à-vis the widespread use of political killings and involuntary disappearances in its counter-revolutionary campaign, Pantaleon added.
It should be remembered that farmers Reynold Yanoc and Flaviano Arante of Barangay Talalak in Sta. Catalina town remain missing after they were arrested more than six months ago by elements of the now-reassigned 61st Infantry Battalion.
Alfante's arrest and continued disappearance is another proof that no amount of "human rights re-education" and "media re-packaging" of AFP units -- whether they be the now-transferred 61st IB, or the currently-assigned 79th IB -- will stop the mercenary AFP from committing more human rights and international humanitarian law violations in southeast Negros, in pursuit of its mad and ill-fated 2010 target deadline to crush the NPA, the rebel spokesman further said. (EBS)
