MANILA, Philippines — The New People's Army takes responsibility for the deaths of four police officers in a town in Negros Oriental on July 18 but denies torturing them.
The Communist Party of the Philippines said in a statement that the four Philippine National Police personnel "were armed adversaries of the NPA and died in a legitimate act of war" but that the reports that they were tortured are "false claims."
The CPP did not offer evidence to dispute police claims of torture.
According to the PNP, Police Corporal Relebert Beronio and Patrolmen Raffy Callao, Ruel Cabellon and Marquino de Leon were surrounded by around 30 to 40 armed men in Ayungon town and captured.
Brig. Gen. Debold Sinas, Police Regional Office-7 diector, said the four police officers were hogtied and kneeling when they were shot. He said the officers were subdued and hit with rifle buttstocks. Some of them suffered fractured ribs and hematoma, he said, citing autopsy reports.
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The CPP insisted, however, that "based on reports of the concerned NPA command, the four armed personnel of the Philippine National Police were killed in an ambush mounted by the NPA in Ayungon town last week, and were not tortured, contrary to false claims made by Duterte."
It also claimed that "the NPA strictly prohibits the use of torture" or even "lifting a finger against its captives or prisoners."
Referring to the killings of the four police officers, Carlos Conde of rights group Human Rights Watch said: "If true the cops were executed by the New People’s Army, as alleged by the police, this could be a serious violation of international humanitarian law by the Philippine rebel group."
In a statement, the Commission on Human Rights said last week that it "strongly condemns" the brutal killing of the policemen.
These heinous acts committed against law enforcement are emboldened by the country’s ever growing culture of violence and impunity. To combat it, we call on the government to help ensure that due process be followed in identifying and bringing the perpetrators to account. pic.twitter.com/ZATfVGjjID
— CHR Philippines (@chrgovph) July 20, 2019
"These heinous acts committed against law enforcement are emboldened by the country's ever growing culture of violence and impunity," the commission also said.
"To combat it, we call on the government to help ensure that due process be followed in identifying and bringing the perpetrators to account," it also said.
Maj. Gen. Antonio Parlade, Jr., of the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict, has meanwhile been quoted by state-run Philippine News Agency as calling out rights group Karapatan and the National Union of People's Lawyers for being silent about the deaths of the four police officers.
"You profess to fight for the rights of individuals whose right to life have been brutally violated, yet you choose to be silent in this case?" Parlade said in a July 23 PNA report.
President Rodrigo Duterte has offered a P1-million reward for "the capture, whether dead or alive, of the masterminds, perpetrators, and main shooters" of the four police officers.