OPEN LETTER TO MRS. MARIEL CAMMAYO AND MRS. MA. LUISA TUMOL
(wives of POW 1st Lt. Vicente P. Cammayo of the Special Forces Battalion-AFP and POW P03 Eduardo Tumol of the Police Mobile Group-PNP)
7 December 2008
Dear Mrs. Cammayo and Mrs. Tumol,
Warm revolutionary greetings.
I understand the anguish that you are now going through. It has never been the practice of the New People's Army to deliberately cause suffering on civilians. To this, we commiserate with you.
The only comfort that I can give you is to reiterate the assurance that we are taking good care of your husbands. We have gone beyond what is required by the Geneva Conventions as lenient treatment for soldiers who surrender and are taken as Prisoners of War. Certainly, the hospitality that we can offer is very basic and unlike the comfort that your husbands have been used to. But they eat more than what we eat. They sleep more comfortably than we do. They have not been subjected to any kind of physical or psychological torture. Most of all, their safety, security and welfare are our primary concern.
Mrs. Cammayo -- we have tried to reinforce this assurance through the video clip we sent through the media to show you that your husband is healthy and unharmed. In your present condition, you are very vulnerable. It would not be good for you to be unduly stressed. Your husband is also very concerned for you. However, he also understands that your first priority right now is to take care of your unborn child.
As your husbands are declared prisoners of war, this will give you comfort that they are treated well, and their rights are protected as POWs under the international humanitarian law (IHL). Thus, I would like to assure you along with the revolutionary forces that there is no cause for alarm.
POW 1Lt. Vicente P. Cammayo, commander of the 11th Company of the 3rd Special Forces Battalion-AFP and POW PO3 Eduardo Cruzada Tumol of the police's 1105th Provincial Mobile Group are currently under investigation for possible violations of human rights and international humanitarian law that they may have committed in the course of implementing the US-Arroyo regime's counter-revolutionary Operation Plan Bantay Laya II.
As your husbands are ranking officers and men, they are directly responsible for orders that have resulted in hurting many innocent civilians in the areas where they have been deployed. The Revolutionary Court conducts investigations as expeditiously as possible. At the same time, we take our investigations seriously and thorough. The results of these investigations will be made public. Upon the capture of your husbands, the legal and judicial process of the revolutionary government has commenced. A couple of weeks will not be enough time to accomplish this, more so under condition of fierce military operations.
Many military officials, especially those who have never experienced and can only speak about the suffering that your husbands have undergone in the battlefield, will try to demean this process. "Kangaroo court" is what they derisively call our Revolutionary Court. But years and years of building the People's Democratic Government and revolutionary justice served and implemented, the people can only turn to the Revolutionary Government as their only true source of justice.
The viciously fascist Arroyo regime that has prized Gen. Jovito Palparan and Gen. Hermogenes Esperon Jr have victimized millions of peasants, workers, journalists, lawyers, students, human rights activists and church people and NDFP consultants. Even your husbands as well as the AFP foot soldiers have been victims of the regime's callousness, warmongering and injustice.
We do not have a kangaroo court. A kangaroo court is one where justice can be bought to the advantage of the rich while the poor languish in prisons for crimes that they have not committed. I think you are familiar with such courts.
At this point, I ask that you try to recognize the other lies that have been told to you for what they are -- lies. Among the many others, I would like to make a few corrections:
First, the NPA had never denied, right from the start, the captivity of your husband. The military cannot concoct with such a statement purportedly from us because we never said anything like that. We were delayed in making any kind of announcement because foremost in the priorities of the NPA custodial forces was your husbands' security and safety amid the incessant fierce military operations in the countryside.
Secondly, the so-called AFP "rescue" missions that have been dispatched are not for the purpose of getting your husbands safely. The military merely wants to save face after the embarrassing back-to-back defeats that they have suffered in the hands of the people's army. It would not be surprising if they shoot your husbands themselves and put the blame on us. I realize that these may be difficult for you to believe. I'm sure many of your husbands' colleagues have approached you and derided the NPA.
I ask you now to let our records speak for us. The New People's Army has never made it a practice to be deceitful. Even with our mistakes, we have been upfront and forthright, sometimes at great cost to us. Through hard work, painstaking mass work and sincerity, we have gained the trust of the masses. The people's trust is the source of our increasing strength.
Your husbands have been as brave and accepting of their situation as they possibly can, even though they are also very eager to go home. It is my hope that you, being wives of soldiers, can, likewise, be as brave.
For the people,
(SGD) RUBI DEL MUNDO
Spokesperson
National Democratic Front of the Philippines
Southern Mindanao
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