Duterte issues ultimatum on NPA's alleged use of landmines

MANILA, Philippines (Philippines News Agency) -- President Rodrigo Duterte issued early Sunday morning an ultimatum against the communist rebels’ reported use of landmines and demanded inclusion of the issue in the peace talks or else the negotiations are off.

 

“Either you stop it or we stop talking,” the president said in a news conference held at the wake of four Philippine Army soldiers killed in two separate encounters in Compostela Valley on Friday against alleged members of the New People’s Army.

 

The Armed Forces of the Philippines’ Eastern Mindanao Command said in a news release Saturday that a landmine explosion killed three of the soldiers. Eastmincom condemned “in the highest form the deliberate use of landmine by the NPAs, which is in violation of International Humanitarian Law.”

 

Addressing the negotiators of the Communist Party of the Philippines-National Democratic Front (CPP-NDF), President Duterte said, “I would insist you include the landmines or else no talks at all, then we fight for another 45 years…. I am now invoking the Geneva Conventions. It is part of the international law, not only of the Philippines but around the world.”

 

The NPA has in the past said that it does not use landmines, but command-detonated explosives, which it said are not prohibited under the Ottawa Treaty, the international treaty that bans the production, stockpiling and use of anti-personnel mines.

 

The president was at the soldiers’ wake at the Naval Station Felix Apolinario in Panacan, Davao City from Saturday evening until the early hours of Sunday.

 

Cpl. Gilmar Mapa, Cpl Jimmy Bayta, Pfc Rolen Roy Sarmiento and Cpl Ruel Mangaoang were killed in action less than a week after Duterte lifted the government’s unilateral ceasefire with the CPP-NPA-NDF on July 30.

 

The president declared the truce during his first State of the Nation Address on July 25. It can be recalled that President Duterte lamented the heavy and “tragic” cost of armed rebellion.

 

“All of us want peace, not the peace of the dead, but the peace of the living. We express our willingness and readiness to go to the negotiating table, and yet we load our guns, fix our sights, pull the trigger. It is both ironic and tragic— and it is endless,” he said in his SONA.

 

“While we extol the bravery and heroism of our soldiers, kayo, the rebels, do the same for your members and fighters. What I see instead are the widows and the orphans and I feel their pain and grieve, and no amount of cash assistance or the number of medals can compensate the loss of a human life. Sorrow cuts across every stratum of society. It cuts deeply and the pain lasts forever,” the president added in his first SONA.

 

Casualties of Compostela encounters Cpl Mapa, Cpl Bayta, and Pfc Sarmiento were the ones who died Friday morning in a landmine explosion during an encounter against suspected NPA combatants in Barangay Rizal, Monkayo, Compostela Valley.

 

Eastmincom said the three died "when pursuing troops of 25IB had a 45-minute skirmish against around 60 NPAs who were utilizing IED."

 

At least 10 soldiers were wounded in the Monkayo encounter and are recuperating at Naval Station Felix Apolinario in Panacan, Davao City.

 

The ten identified wounded are:

 

 

Cpl Mangaoang died in the afternoon of the same day in a separate encounter against about 30 alleged NPA rebels in Brgy. Parasanon in Maragusan town, also in Compostela Valley.