DAVAO CITY”•President Rodrigo Duterte on Sunday told the New People’s Army to stop using land mines against government forces because it is against the Geneva Convention.
He said he should not hear any information that a soldier or a civilian died because of a land mine explosion or else he would stop the peace negotiations.
“This can’t go on, the land mine,” Duterte said. “You must decide now because if I hear another explosion killing civilians and soldiers, I will order the government [peace] panel to back out from the negotiations.”
Duterte said he will insist that the talks about stopping the use of land mines be included in the peace negotiations.
“Stop the land mine or I will tell the government panel to get out from the talks. Either you stop it or we stop talking,” Duterte said.
He made his statement even as Luis Jalandoni, chairman of the communists’ negotiating panel, said that if the Jasig-protected NDFP consultants were released and received travel documents before Aug. 20, it was better to resume formal peace talks on Aug. 20 to 27 to discuss the mode of the ceasefire and how best to arrange it.
He said Duterte had the duty to show official and personal concern for his troops and mourn the death of some of them.
“However, we wish to point out that command-detonated land mines are not violative of the Geneva Convention and the Ottawa Treaty.”
Duterte said that he will also mandate the AFP to use land mines in offensive and defensive operations to counter the communists’ action.
He made the statement after a series of encounters between the New People’s Army and the military took place on Aug. 4 and 5, in which four were killed and 12 wounded on the government side, while two members of the NPA were killed and one was wounded.
According to 10th Infantry Division Spokesman Rhyan Batchar, on Aug. 4 the troops under the 25th Infantry Battalion engaged in a 15-minute firefight in Compostela Valley in which two soldiers were wounded.
The following day two encounters happened between the 71st IB and the Guerrilla Front 27 of the Southern Mindanao Regional Command at the same village.
Four soldiers were killed while 10 were wounded. “As of now, we are still waiting for the result of the autopsy of the four soldiers, but based on the situation of the soldiers when they were found, the two were slashed in the neck and one was crushed with stone on the head,” said Infantry Brigade Commander Macairog Alberto.
10th ID commander Major General Rafael Valencia said the miliutary was saddened by the death of the soldiers.
“This senseless violence should stop and peace should prosper in our country,” Valencia said.