Military hits NPA's use of toxic in bombs

MANILA, Philippines - The military on Wednesday described as “unacceptable” the alleged use of landmines with bacteria by communist rebels.

The New People’s Army (NPA), however, denied using such explosives and chided the military for spreading what it described as “malicious propaganda.”

Armed Forces public affairs chief Lt. Col. Ramon Zagala said using landmines is bad enough but employing explosives with venom or bacteria is “a different level of cruelty”

“I don’t believe this is an advancement of how they (NPA) do things. Maybe we can say that the attack, undertaking is a different level of cruelty,” Zagala said in a press conference Thursday.

“We don’t expect them to play fair and any advantage they want to have, they will use it. But to use such methods, I believe, is unacceptable,” he added.

Rigoberto Sanchez, spokesman of the NPA Southern Mindanao Regional Command, denied that their forces had used chemical and biological weapons.

“To insinuate that the NPA is engaged in a highly criminal biological and chemical warfare is, indeed, pure invention,” Sanchez said in a statement sent via e-mail.

"The bacteria and poison are not found in the NPA bombs, but in the AFP (Armed Forces of the Philippines) headquarters, camps, detachments and in the AFP echelons itself,” he added.

Sanchez said the seven soldiers that were hurt in a blast in Compostela Valley last Tuesday were hit by command-detonated explosives and not by  reported pressure-type bombs that are banned by international laws.

He said their fighters have been using traditional non-biologically toxic ingredients in the last four decades.

Seven soldiers were injured in a landmine incident in Compostela Valley, a known hotbed of communist insurgents.

The military said an examination of shrapnel recovered from the victims had revealed the presence of bacteria and possibly a deadly toxin.

Camp Panacan Station Hospital Orthopaedic Surgeon Victor Dato said the bacteria found was Enterobacter Cloacae and Streptococcus Agalacteiae which is commonly found in the human intestine.

“This proves that the NPA contaminates these landmines with human or animal feces. We have already had patient who is a former NPA member who attested to this practice when making landmines” Dato said.

“Even more daunting is how one of the patients yesterday, who was seemingly stable all of a sudden entered a state of shock. We found his leg to be in a severe state of infection, with blackening flesh,” he added.

Dato said such effect is no longer a result of the fecal bacteria, but possibly a deadlier venom ingredient. – Alexis Romero