NPA asks AFP to surface abducted cadres
The Merardo Arce command-Southern Mindanao regional operations command of the New People’s Army (NPA) strongly condemns the abduction of three NPA cadres of the Front 25 Operations Command-NPA perpetrated by the combined fascist troops belonging to the Philippine Army’s 66th Infantry Battalion and the Scout Rangers under the 10th Infantry Division-AFP.
The NPA demands that Ruel Cabales, 41 (Ka Rael); Nelson Carvajosa, 35 (Ka Janggo) and Catherine Cacdac, 31 (Ka Kulay) be immediately surfaced, and accorded humane treatment befitting prisoners of war in line with the international war protocols and the International Humanitarian Law (IHL).
Witnesses identified troops belonging to the 66th IB and the Scout Rangers forcibly entered a house in Pulang Lupa village, Baranggay Ngan, Compostela town at 2 am Monday, January 26. They dragged the three NPA comrades out of the house and hauled them into a waiting armored personnel carrier. The day before they were abducted, Ka Rael, Ka Janggo and Ka Kulay conducted a mediation meeting to help settle long-standing local problems in the community.
Up to the present, and despite intercession of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), the military has yet to surface Ka Rael, Ka Janggo and Ka Kulay.
The January 26 incident is a blatant abduction. The 10th ID-AFP, which prides itself on torturing captured NPA combatants and finishing off NPA hors de combat, employs treachery and makes a mockery of the IHL and the GRP-NDFP Comprehensive Agreement on the Respect for Human Rights and International Humanitarian Law (CARHRIHL).
We demand that the 10th ID-AFP surface Ka Rael, Ka Janggo and Ka Kulay, and to treat their captives humanely according to universally acceptable norms and to desist from subjecting the said NPA cadres to barbaric and inhuman torture.
(SGD) Rigoberto F. Sanchez
Spokesperson
Merardo Arce Command
Southern Mindanao Regional Operations Command
New People’s Army
