by Miriam G. Desacada
Catarman N.Samar–Two construction workers of a farm-to-market road were killed on Saturday (June 3) when an anti-personnel mine (APM), set up by the NPA terrorists, exploded at the construction site in Barangay Magsaysay of Las Navas, Northern Samar.
The workers, residents of Barangay Quirino of the same town, were identified as Roel Lebico and Jerson Cabe.
Aside from the injuries they got from the mine explosion, Lebico and Cabe had several gunshot wounds as they were obviously finished off by the terrorists.
Lieutenant Colonel Joemar Buban, commander of the 20th Infantry Battalion (20IB), said the mine blast that was deemed as an attack by the communist terrorists, “was a clear violation of the Ottawa Convention (Mine Ban Treaty) prohibiting the use, stockpiling, production, and transfer of anti-personnel landmines (APLs).”
Buban said: “We are calling on the Commission of Human Rights (CHR) to investigate and make a statement on these continuous inexcusable violations by the NPA communist terrorists in Northern Samar against the Ottawa Convention, the International Humanitarian Law, and Republic Act 9851 (An Act Defining and Penalizing Crimes Against International Humanitarian Law, Genocide and Other Crimes Against Humanity…).”
The CHR-Region 8, when contacted by this newspaper, said it is going to dispatch an investigating team to Northern Samar this week. “We shall be sending a team even if there’s no request from the families of the victims. A fact-finding mission shall be conducted,” said Desiree Pontejos, regional director of CHR-8.
Buban also said that the leadership of the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP), as the self-proclaimed organizational representative of its armed wing, the NPA, should be held liable for not taking any efforts to stop the NPA from continuing the production, stockpile, transport, and use of crudely manufactured APMs that also pose danger to lives of the people in the communities where they lay the mines.”
While condemning the NPA’s APMs attack, Buban condoled with the victims’ families who cried for justice and sought for the punishment of the perpetrators.
The Las Navas local government unit, for its part, is going to initiate a fact-finding mission to gather information and evidences needed for the filing of charges against the perpetrators and the leadership of CPP-NPA-NDF on the killings of Lebico and Cabe.
“The 20IB strongly condemns this incident without qualification. No goal or ideology can justify the use of such destructive and indiscriminate explosive devices,” said Buban. “This is not the first AP mine attack by the CPP-NPA-NDF in Northern Samar that killed innocent civilians and members of the armed forces,” he added.
“The 20IB has been doing its best to help the formerly conflict-affected barangays in Northern Samar—through our Mobile Community Support and Sustainment Program Teams—to achieve long-lasting peace and sustainable development in the province,” said Buban.
“But the CPP-NPA’s recent AP Mines attack shows violence and senseless killings which does not contribute in improving the way of life of the Nortehanons,” he added.
Buban further said, “The use of these AP Mines that killed two civilians (Lebico and Cabe), as well as the numerous innocent individuals in the past is actually a matter of procedure for these terrorists who are bent on inflicting death and damages to lives and properties.”
Records show that, on 17 April 2019, 10-year-old Armanda Jay Raymond from an APM blast at Barangay San Miguel in Las Navas also. On 6 June 2021, an NPA’s mine attack in Masbate City killed two youngsters, the Absalon cousins, who were riding their bicycles that hit the mine.
On 3 April 2022, the terrorists blasted APMs, also at Las Navas, killing two and wounding four soldiers of the 20IB. On 5 July 2022, an APM was exploded at a barangay in Mapanas town that wounded seven Army men. Then on 19 July 2022, a soldier died and four others wounded after another APM attack by the terrorists at a remote village in Catubig town, Northern Samar. —Miriam G. Desacada