Troops exhume remains of rebel killed in clash in Mindanao
DAVAO CITY, Philippines (Mindanao Examiner / Nov. 19, 2008) – Philippine soldiers exhumed Wednesday the remains of a communist rebel who was killed in a clash with government forces in Mindanao.
Army officials said the slain rebel, Arnel Visagas, was among those who were killed in the fighting in Casoon village in Compostela Valley’s Monkayo town on November 7 and troops are still searching for the other graves.
Lt. Kurt Decapia, public affairs chief of the 10th Infantry Division, said Visagas’ family sought the help of the military to find the remains of the rebel so they can give it a proper burial. “Arnel Visagas was a member of Sentro de Gravidad, Guerilla Front 3 and his cadaver was exhumed in the presence of his parents,” he said.
He said Visagas joined the New People’s Army (NPA) in 1996 when he was 20 years old. “Field reports revealed that there were other NPA members who were hastily buried like Arnel Visagas,” Decapia said.
Visagas’ group is holding 1st Lieutenant Vicente Cammayo as prisoner of war after his unit clashed with rebels. Two soldiers and government militia was also killed in the fighting, Decapia said.
“The (army) Command will pursue its offensive without let-up (against the NPA) and will eventually rescue Lt. Cammayo,” he said.
Rigoberto Sanchez, a rebel spokesman, said Cammayo, commander of the Special Forces unit, is being interrogated by the NPA’s Alejandro Lanaja Command, for possible human rights violations and other crimes related to operations of the Special Forces in Mindanao.
He said Cammayo's rights as prisoner of war are being respected by rebels, but warned that any rescue attempt would put the officer’s life in peril. “The only cause of POW Cammayo's safety being imperiled emanates from the 10th Infantry Division's futile attempt to mount a rescue operation,” he said.
Aris Francisco, spokesman of the NPA's Alejandro Lanaja Command, accused the 3rd Special Forces Battalion to which Cammayo's unit belongs, as responsible for the series of violations to human rights, protocols of war and international humanitarian law in Compostela Valley province.
Francisco said the Special Forces masterminded the June bombing in Nabunturan town that wounded several innocent civilians. "The bombing was a desperate and fascist attack in response to the sparrow operations of the NPA which killed two of their soldiers at that time," he said.
The NPA also tagged Special Forces members as behind the brutal murder in June of a peasant leader Noli Llanos in Nabunturan's Mipangi village, where rebels killed three government soldiers; and also the killing of farmer Diego Encarnacion in the village of Linda in Nabunturan town in July. Both farmers were accused by the military as NPA supporters.
The NPA, armed wing of the outlawed Communist Party of the Philippines, is fighting the government the past four decades for the establishment of a Maoist state in the country. The military denied all accusations against the. (Mindanao Examiner)
Army officials said the slain rebel, Arnel Visagas, was among those who were killed in the fighting in Casoon village in Compostela Valley’s Monkayo town on November 7 and troops are still searching for the other graves.
Lt. Kurt Decapia, public affairs chief of the 10th Infantry Division, said Visagas’ family sought the help of the military to find the remains of the rebel so they can give it a proper burial. “Arnel Visagas was a member of Sentro de Gravidad, Guerilla Front 3 and his cadaver was exhumed in the presence of his parents,” he said.
He said Visagas joined the New People’s Army (NPA) in 1996 when he was 20 years old. “Field reports revealed that there were other NPA members who were hastily buried like Arnel Visagas,” Decapia said.
Visagas’ group is holding 1st Lieutenant Vicente Cammayo as prisoner of war after his unit clashed with rebels. Two soldiers and government militia was also killed in the fighting, Decapia said.
“The (army) Command will pursue its offensive without let-up (against the NPA) and will eventually rescue Lt. Cammayo,” he said.
Rigoberto Sanchez, a rebel spokesman, said Cammayo, commander of the Special Forces unit, is being interrogated by the NPA’s Alejandro Lanaja Command, for possible human rights violations and other crimes related to operations of the Special Forces in Mindanao.
He said Cammayo's rights as prisoner of war are being respected by rebels, but warned that any rescue attempt would put the officer’s life in peril. “The only cause of POW Cammayo's safety being imperiled emanates from the 10th Infantry Division's futile attempt to mount a rescue operation,” he said.
Aris Francisco, spokesman of the NPA's Alejandro Lanaja Command, accused the 3rd Special Forces Battalion to which Cammayo's unit belongs, as responsible for the series of violations to human rights, protocols of war and international humanitarian law in Compostela Valley province.
Francisco said the Special Forces masterminded the June bombing in Nabunturan town that wounded several innocent civilians. "The bombing was a desperate and fascist attack in response to the sparrow operations of the NPA which killed two of their soldiers at that time," he said.
The NPA also tagged Special Forces members as behind the brutal murder in June of a peasant leader Noli Llanos in Nabunturan's Mipangi village, where rebels killed three government soldiers; and also the killing of farmer Diego Encarnacion in the village of Linda in Nabunturan town in July. Both farmers were accused by the military as NPA supporters.
The NPA, armed wing of the outlawed Communist Party of the Philippines, is fighting the government the past four decades for the establishment of a Maoist state in the country. The military denied all accusations against the. (Mindanao Examiner)
Labels: Compostela Valley, Lt. Vicente Cammayo, Monkayo, NPA
posted by The Mindanao Examiner at 4:21 PM
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