Bayan chides 10th ID's lame denial of keeping abducted NPA combatants

PRESS RELEASE

February 3, 2009

Davao City – What appears to be the first abduction case in Southern Mindanao under the US-Arroyo regime, Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (BAYAN) hits the leadership of 10^th Infantry Division under the command of Major General Jogy Leo Fojas for constantly denying such report amidst statements of the witnesses and the families of the 3 abducted combatants of the New People's Army.

"The military is acting on a script, in denying any involvement in the abduction of Ruel Cabales, Catherine Guinoo Cacdac, Nelson Carbajosa. The abduction of suspected NPA combatants and legal personalities is something that the military is bound to commit under their machinations of Oplan Bantay Laya 2," Bayan-SMR spokesperson John Birondo said.

"This is nothing new to what they have long been doing to members of progressive groups whom they accuse of being the legal fronts of the communist movement. Time and again, they kill, abduct, and torture those they tag as enemies of the state and act as if nothing happens. They are unstoppable in sowing terror in various communities where helpless civilians used to dwell in peace," Birondo added.

"Indiscriminately, the military hits like a butcher to those who stand firm against the Arroyo government - a government that deserves no less than the people's ire for all its faults and sins," Birondo stressed.

“The military should respect the fact that their battle against the New People's Army is of high relation to national and international declarations such as the Geneva Convention and Comprehensive Agreement on the Respect for Human Rights and International Humanitarian Laws (CARHRIHL), and that they can not go on violating everything that are stipulated therein," Birondo stressed.

"Yet, in contrast to the NPA which respects the rights of its Prisoners of War, the 10^th ID, as the region’s butchers in uniform, is perpetrating the most fascist means and brutal interrogation tactics to extract whatever valuable information they aim to extract from their captives, in extreme violation to IHL standards and menacingly similar to those employed by the US military towards its own captives, " Birondo added.###