Rights monitors, Makabayan bloc condemn NPA blast that killed Absalons
MANILA, Philippines — The Commission on Human Rights and international rights group Human Rights Watch condemned the blast from an improvised explosive device planted by communist rebels that killed football athlete Kieth Absalon and his union leader cousin, Nolven Absalon.
The New People’s Army, the armed wing of the Communist Party of the Philippines, has owned up to the explosion, but did not say whether they used landmines, which the CHR and HRW said would be a violation of international law.
“Not only do they cause exceptionally severe injuries, suffering and death, anti-personnel landmines also fail to distinguish between civilians and combatants, such as what happened in this case,” CHR spokesperson Jacqueline Ann de Guia said.
HRW senior Philippines researcher Carlos Conde called the use of landmines a “war crime” which is “subject to criminal prosecution not just in the Philippines but in courts around the world.”
The CHR said it is now investigating the blast that killed the Absalons while they were biking in Masbate last Sunday.
“We stress that even non-state actors, such as the NPA, are bound to respect IHL (international humanitarian law), alongside the government,” de Guia said.
The CPP-NPA is bound by the Comprehensive Agreement on Respect for Human Rights and International Humanitarian Law that the government and the National Democratic Front of the Philippines signed in 1998.
The NDFP represents the CPP-NPA in peace talks.
Makabayan: File complaint with monitoring body
The leftist Makabayan bloc also condemned the explosion that killed the Absalons, which they said violated international humanitarian law. The bloc also extended its condolences to the relatives of the two.
"We condemn the military action by a unit of the NPA in Masbate City that caused their death and injuries to others for violating international humanitarian law.Our commitment to human rights binds us to condemn any and all acts that harm or kill unarmed civilians, non-combatants, and protected persons in situations of armed conflict," they also said.
The Makabayan lawmakers also said they were respectfully urging the family to file a complaint before the Joint Monitoring Committee.
The JMC is a panel created under CARHRIHL that monitors compliance by government forces and communist rebels with the said agreement.
"Filing a complaint with the JMC will serve as an important reminder on the need for both the signatories to the CARHRIHL … to always abide by the laws of war: all non-combatants, civilians and civilian populations should be spared and protected, so that there will be no more Absalons to be needlessly lost," the six-member House bloc said.
However, Armed Forces of the Philippines Human Rights Office chief, Col. Joel Alejanfro Nacnac, has said that the CARHRIHL is no longer in existence and that the JMC has “long been dissolved.”
Part V, Article 6 of the CARHRIHL provides that the JMC will continue to exist “until dissolved by either party by sending to the other party a written notice of dissolution which shall take effect 30 days after official receipt.”
It is unclear if the government or communist rebels have followed this process to dissolve the JMC.
The government has said that past agreements with communist rebels are no longer in force after peace talks between them collapsed in 2017.
In a separate statement, the Department of the Interior and Local Government said the CPP-NPA should turn over rebels involved in the explosion to the Philippine justice system.
"Now that the CPP/NPA has accepted full responsibility for the senseless murder, it now becomes their duty to turn over the terrorists responsible for the deaths so that justice maybe served to their families and loved ones," DILG Secretary Eduardo Año said.
The DILG said the rebels cannot be trusted to hold an internal probe into the incident "because they do not adhere to established rules of procedure and that they have their own brand of revolutionary justice.
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