Front 25 Operations Command
New People’s Army Southern Mindanao
Press Statement
April 4, 2007
The Front 25 Operations Command of the New People’s Army (NPA) in Southern Mindanao commiserates with the family of Grecil Galacio who was killed by the military in the course of its wanton operations in New Bataan, Compostela Valley. The AFP’s Eastern Command through its chief Lt. Gen. Rodolfo Obaniana has falsely justified its murderous rampage by claiming that Grecil was an NPA combatant who attacked them using an M-16 rifle, in an apparent move to save face and evade public backlash. Four fascist AFP soldiers were killed and scores of others were wounded in that incident; there were no NPA casualties.
Grecil’s killing only highlights the AFP’s mantra that civilians and children like Grecil are fair game to the Arroyo regime’s atrocious military operations in the countryside. In total disregard of the family’s grief, the AFP has callously capitalized on the death of Grecil to conceal the heinous crime it has committed.
The NPA, true to its principles and protocols, does not recruit individuals under 18 years old and, at all cost, protects civilians. It abides by Protocols 1 and 2 of the Geneva Conventions of 1949 and additional protocols of 1977, the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, and the GRP-NDFP Comprehensive Agreement on the Respect for Human Rights and International Humanitarian Law (CAR-HR-IHL).
Grecil was not an NPA combatant. She was not with the NPA unit engaged by the AFP in firefight. She was not caught in the crossfire but was intentionally hit by AFP bullets in a murderous military offensive that wantonly violated protocols of war. Obviously realizing its fatal mistake, the AFP planted an M-16 rifle beside her corpse and now trumpets the incredible claim that her killing was justified because Grecil was a “child soldier.”
The bankrupt AFP is tainted with the blood of Grecil along with the numerous children-victims of violations of human rights and protocols of war in the regime’s terrorism and military operations in the countryside.
The AFP hierarchy has likewise propagated its “child soldiers” campaign against the NPA to hide its losses in the battlefield. Outsmarting the AFP’s supposed military offensive, the NPA Red fighters turned the table against the enemy troops, taking the utmost care that civilian welfare and lives were not jeopardized.
(Sgd) HOMER SANDEJAS
Spokesperson
Front 25 Operations Command
New People’s Army Southern Mindanao
