NPA rebels offer compensation to blast victims

DAVAO CITY, Philippines—Communist guerrillas have offered financial compensation to civilian victims of a land-mine explosion in a Davao del Sur town, apologizing for the injuries that the victims suffered in the attack and promising to “discipline” guerrillas involved in it.

“We are claiming responsibility for the incident for the reason that we believe that medical staff and mobile medical units should not be made targets of any form of attack and that their protection and security are being guaranteed by international humanitarian laws,” said Rigoberto Sanchez, spokesperson of the New People’s Army (NPA) in Southern Mindanao.

Sanchez said the rebels were giving financial assistance to the four rescue workers who were injured in the March 2 attack on government soldiers in Barangay (village) Managa in Bansalan town.

“The NPA regional command has ordered the delivery of the assistance to the civilian victims for their immediate recovery and so they may return to work,” Sanchez said in a statement.

Sanchez said guerrilla leaders had started an investigation and “once the data and evidence have been completed, we are assuring that proper action will be made and disciplinary action will be imposed against the NPA unit responsible.”

The error also prompted a review of NPA “policies and methods, which are guiding tactical military operations,” Sanchez said.

The NPA announcement came on Wednesday, the same day that Davao del Sur Gov. Claude Bautista, with several mayors, rallied residents here in condemning the continued use of land mines by the rebels.

The rally came after the attack by rebels on government soldiers that also led to the wounding of four workers of the Provincial Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council—Genaro Doronio Dumayas, Bonita de la Cruz, Arnel Comandante Veloroso and Alberto Simbajon Cabual.

The four were on a mission to pick up soldiers wounded in a previous land-mine attack by the rebels. The ambulance they were riding in was hit by a land mine, too.

Bautista quickly condemned the attack and urged the NPA to spare civilians. He called on the rebels to stop using land mines, saying the weapons do not distinguish targets.

Franco Calida, mayor of Hagonoy town, said at the rally that land mines were banned by international treaties. Calida, brains of the anticommunist group Alsa Masa that became popular in the Davao region in the 1980s, warned of the possible revival of the now defunct group.

“If I need to revive vigilantism in this part of the province, I’ll do it just to restore peace and order,” Calida said.

Sanchez, the NPA spokesperson, said the rebels involved in the attack appeared to have failed to distinguish between the ambulance and the military trucks that were the real targets of the rebels.

“The ambulance was inconspicuous since it did not discharge its siren, nor was it using any headlights,” Sanchez said in an earlier statement sent by e-mail to the Inquirer.

“We express our deep regret and commiserate with the victims from the Provincial Disaster Risk Reduction Management council,” the NPA spokesperson said. Allan Nawal, Germelina Lacorte and Eldie Aguirre, Inquirer Mindanao