NPA rebels free arrested militia, but held on to captured army soldier in Mindanao

DAVAO CITY, Philippines (Mindanao Examiner / July 16, 2010) – Philippine Maoist rebels freed Friday a government militia they captured last month in Compostela Valley province in Mindanao.

The militia, Juve Latiban, was arrested at a rebel checkpoint on June 19 along with an army soldier, Sergeant Bienvenido Arguelles, in the village of Upper Ulip in Monkayo town. The fate of the soldier is still unknown.

The rebels, who belong to the New People’s Army, said Latiban was only 17 years old when recruited by the military to fight insurgents.

“Juve Latiban, the minor recruited as combatant by the 10th Infantry Division of the Philippine Army, was turned over by the Conrado Heredia Command of the New People’s Army to his family. In line with the international rules of war, specifically because of his age of minority, the New People’s Army did not consider him a prisoner of war,” said Rigoberto Sanchez, a rebel spokesman.

Sanchez accused the 10th Infantry Division of recruiting and arming minors as “combat pawns” in its war against the New People’s Army. He said Latiban was one of 18 minors recruited by the military in 2008 as members of the Civilian Auxiliary Force Geographical Unit.

“By facilitating his return to his family, the New People’s Army corrects the serious and long running misconduct and violation of international humanitarian law committed by the 10th Infantry Division pertaining to the recruitment of minors for AFP (Armed Forces of the Philippines) combat duties. While the AFP, by deliberate and deceitful design, made a combatant out of Juve Latiban and 18 other minors from a single batch of CAFGU in 2008 alone, the NPA made concrete steps to allow him to revert to civilian status,” Sanchez said.

He said Latiban, identified by the military as Job, was recruited in October 2008 by Private First Class Alvin Latiban in Monkayo town in Compostela Valley.

“Together with his batch mates that included 18 other minors, they underwent 45-day training at the 1001st Infantry Brigade headquarters in Tuburan (village) in Mawab town in Compostela Valley,” Sanchez said, quoting from information provided by the arrested militia.

Sanchez said the militia also told the NPA that they were provided fake birth certificates which stated they were already 18 years old when recruited by the military as militias.

Army Captain Emmanuel Garcia, a spokesman for the 10th Infantry Division, denied the accusations of the New People’s Army which is fighting for decades now for the establishment of a Maoist state in the country. (Mindanao Examiner)

Philippine military tags NPA as terror group

DAVAO CITY, Philippines (Mindanao Examiner / July 6, 2010) – The Philippine military on Tuesday branded as propaganda claims by communist New People’s Army rebels that it is recruiting minors to help the government fight insurgents in Mindanao.

Captain Emmanuel Garcia, a regional army spokesman, said the allegations were baseless to hide the NPA’s continued violations of human rights on civilians and terror activities in the southern region.

The NPA accused the military of recruiting Juve Latiban (identified as Job by the military), then 16 years old, to be a member of the government militia group – Civilian Auxiliary Forces Geographical Unit - and fight insurgents.

Latiban and another soldier, Sergeant Bienvenido Arguelles, were seized by rebels on June 19 in the village of Upper Ulip in Compostela Valley’s Monkayo town and are being held as prisoners of war.

“The cat is finally out of the bag. Now it can be said without any shade of public doubt. That in its failed and defeated Operation Plan Bantay Laya II, the 10th Infantry Division of the Armed Forces of the Philippines recruits and arms minors as combat pawns in its war against the people and the revolutionary forces. That what it accuses the people's army of doing turns out to be a matter of official policy in its ranks, long practiced in their counter-revolutionary theater,” said Rigoberto Sanchez, a spokesman for the NPA’s Merardo Arce Command.

Sanchez said the military recruiter of Latiban provided him and 18 other minors with fake birth certificates to cover their real ages.

But Garcia turned the table on the rebel group and said: “The propaganda mill of the terrorists is working overtime after a rattled silence in their panic to divert the case from the real issue of kidnapping and trying to smokescreen their apparent inability to shield their armed front from the wrath of the people in view of their terror attacks against our citizens, against development, against progress and against our country.”

“The irony of all ironies has been let loose by kidnappers who want to deceive the people for the nth time and divert the issue of kidnapping to their irresponsible and baseless accusation that the Civilian Armed Forces Geographical Unit (member) they abducted is a minor. The allegation is a ploy to malign the Armed Forces as an institution together with government instrumentality and community organizations who certified that those who voluntarily joined the Civilian Armed Forces Geographical Unit to watch over their communities are falsifiers.”

Garcia said members of the paramilitary force is a community watch group against rebels and criminal elements and that all volunteers pass through stringent screening to find out fraudulent applications.

“Volunteers are nominated by the Barangay (village) or Municipal Peace and Order Councils through a resolution and aside from the birth certificate, the certification of local officials as for their ages as well as the applicant’s good standing in the community is sought contrary to the communists’ recruitment tactic of hoodwink in deceiving the parents of the children whom they have recruited and put in harm’s way and deny the child warriors’ existence when they are captured, surrendered or worse, killed in combat,” he said.

Garcia said more than a dozen minors who were recruited by the NPA as rebels surrendered to the 10th Infantry Division since last year.

“All of them recruited, armed and manipulated by the NPA under the absolute order of the Communist Party of the Philippines in doing terror attacks against our own people,” he said, adding, the solid proof of a child warrior and a celebrated one at that is the case of Zaldy Canete alias Jinggoy, who surrendered to the military and admitted to have been recruited by the NPA at the age of 13 and at 16 was already fighting troops alongside veteran rebels in Compostela Valley province.

“Now, Job Latiban is being held against his will and is subjected to unimaginable torment of being abducted by a dreaded group that gained notoriety in killing people with total disregard to human rights and mass murder even of its own kind.”

“The pronouncement that Latiban attested that he is a minor is an offshoot of their systematic psychological torture against an individual under duress who might have been forced to accept a bitter choice than to suffer a deadly fate that has befallen so many God-fearing and service oriented troops whom they have abducted and mercilessly murdered in the guise of revolutionary justice like Sergeant Rolen Maglangit whom they killed in May 22 last year,” Garcia said.

Garcia said the rebels boast of a justice system where they are the prosecutor, the judge and the executioner rolled into one. He said no one can expect justice in such a mockery where cases are fabricated and the individual is forced to face a Kangaroo court against concocted pieces of evidence.

“Anyone under duress and subjected to such torment especially by a Godless terrorist organization like the Communist Party of the Philippines and its New People’s Army and National Democratic Front will admit anything and follow their every whim,” Garcia added.

The rebels are fighting the past four decades to topple the democratic government and establish a Maoist state in the country. Peace talks between Manila and the rebel group collapsed in 2004 after the CPP accused President Gloria Arroyo of reneging on several accords, among them the release of all political prisoners and the commitment to take steps to undo the inclusion of the CPP, NPA and NDF chief consultant Jose Maria Sison in the U.S. and other nations’ list of "foreign terrorists."

But new Filipino leader, Benigno Simeon Aquino III, said he will pursue peace talks with communist rebels in an effort to end bloody fighting in the Philippines.

The CPP said it would welcome new peace talks with Aquino and asked Manila to commit itself to all previous agreements, including The Hague Joint Declaration of 1992 which set the guiding principles, framework, agenda and procedures for the talks, the Joint Agreement on Safety and Immunity Guarantees and the Comprehensive Agreement on Respect for Human Rights and International Humanitarian Law.

It also urged the Aquino government to resolve the outstanding cases of abduction and enforced disappearance of NDF peace consultants, including Leo Velasco, Prudencio Calubid and Rogelio Calubad and their staff members and called for the immediate release of Eduardo Sarmiento, Eduardo Serrano, Glicerio Pernia, Angela Ipong, Jaime Soledad, Randy Malayao, Alfredo Mapano, Jovencio Balweg and other consultants who were arrested during the previous Arroyo regime and continue to languish in prisons.

Authorities said those arrested were notorious rebel leaders. (Mindanao Examiner)

NPA rebels seize soldier, militia in Mindanao

Communist rebels release photos of four prisoners - Army Corporals Marcial Bawagan, Ariel Asumo, Eduardo Alcala and Victor Pitogo - shortly before they are freed in Mindanao. The four were taken prisoners in the town of Mawab on May 12, 2010.

DAVAO CITY, Philippines (Mindanao Examiner / June 20, 2010) – Communist rebels held a government soldier and a militiaman after stopping public vehicles at a checkpoint in the southern Philippines, officials said.

Officials said the two hostages - Staff Sergeant Bienvenido Arguilles, of the 25th Infantry Battalion, and Job Latiban - were seized Saturday in the village of Uper Ulip in Compostela Valley’s Monkayo town.

“The two were just passing by the village when dissident-terrorists collared them,” said Army Captain Emmanuel Garcia, a spokesman for the 10th Infantry Division.

He said some 30 New People’s Army set up the checkpoint and inspected passing vehicles for soldiers. Civilian passengers were also forced to attend a lecture by rebels about their cause and later freed.

Garcia did not give other details about the abduction, but said troops were sent to track down the rebels and rescue the duo.

The latest strike by rebels came days after they freed three soldiers and a government militia after almost a month in captivity in Compostela Valley.

The four - Army Corporals Marcial Bawagan, Ariel Asumo, Eduardo Alcala and Victor Pitogo - were taken prisoners in the town of Mawab on May 12.

Anvil Guinto, a spokesman for the rebel’s Crucifino Uballas command, said the release of the prisoners came after their families appealed to the NPA to free the four men who are being accused of violating human rights of civilians in the province.

“The release is in recognition of the appeals made by the families, religious groups and personalities, well-meaning individuals and progressive groups on their behalf,” he said. ”The NPA accords the released POWs the chance to conduct themselves in a manner respectful of the people's rights and the international laws of war. Their arrest and subsequent detention should also serve as a warning to officers and elements of the Armed Forces of the Philippines, Philippine National Police and their intelligence and paramilitary units.”

On Friday, rebels also attacked a group of policemen and wounding three of them in Davao Oriental’s Cateel town. Security officials said as many as five rebels were either killed or wounded in the fighting after a failed raid on a police station in the town.

The NPA is the military wing of the outlawed Communist Party of the Philippines which have been fighting for decades for the establishment of a Maoist state in the country. (Mindanao Examiner)