COMMANDER IN CHIEF鈥橲 RESPECTS President Aquino pays his last respects to the seven Marine soldiers killed in the May 25 ambush by Abu Sayyaf bandits in Sulu as relatives of a slain soldier comfort each other during the wake at the Marines鈥� barracks in Fort Bonifacio. LYN RILLON
Malaca帽ang on Tuesday expressed outrage over the killing of eight policemen by a rebel landmine in Cagayan on Monday, saying this was a violation of international humanitarian law and treaty, and the convention banning the use of the explosive devices.
鈥淚t鈥檚 very clear. It was a violation or against the law on the use of landmines,鈥� President Aquino鈥檚 deputy spokesperson, Abigail Valte, said during a press briefing.
The policemen鈥攁ll belonging to the Special Action Force鈥攚ere killed when a mine planted by the communist New People鈥檚 Army (NPA) blew up in Allacapan town in Cagayan.
They were in 鈥渁thletic uniform,鈥� not in combat fatigues, as they were on their way for a medical checkup, Valte said. 鈥淲e couldn鈥檛 make sense of their (rebels鈥�) reason for justifying (the attack),鈥� she said.
Luis Jalandoni, chief peace negotiator of the communist-led National Democratic Front (NDF), has claimed that the use of 鈥渃ommand-detonated landmines鈥� as opposed to 鈥渃ontact-detonated鈥� ones, by the NPA was not a violation of the Ottawa Treaty.
The Ottawa Protocol is formally known as the 鈥淐onvention on the Prohibition of the Use, Stockpiling, Production and Transfer of Anti-Personnel Mines and on their Destruction.鈥�
The Office of the Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process (Opapp) condemned the NPA鈥檚 use of landmines as 鈥渁 gross violation of Republic Act No. 9851, or the Philippine Act on Crimes against International Humanitarian Law, Genocide and Other Crimes Against Humanity, as well as the Ottawa Protocol.鈥�
鈥淏y its insistence on using landmines and its insistence on continuing a regime of violence instead of talking peace, the NPA turns a blind eye to the clamor of our people for a peaceful resolution of the armed conflict,鈥� the Opapp said in a strongly worded statement.
Sen. Francis Escudero said the government should return to the negotiating table with the Communist Party of the Philippines and the NPA, its armed wing, as a means to avoid bloody clashes with the rebels.
Escudero, who chairs the Senate committee on justice and human rights, said the breakthrough in the peace talks with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) should also be duplicated with the NDF.
鈥淲ill the doors and windows be open to avoid skirmishes like this?聽 The government has been truly successful in its negotiations with the MILF.聽 I hope we can also see the same happen with the NPA,鈥� he told reporters.
In a statement, Interior Secretary Mar Roxas condemned the attack, saying such 鈥渒ind of savagery has no place in our society.鈥�
鈥淭his makes the attack all the more shocking and senseless since it was premeditated and carried out without provocation,鈥� he said.鈥�Reports from Michael Lim Ubac, Norman Bordadora and Marlon Ramos