NPA says ‘bacteria, poison’ found in AFP, not in landmines

by DAVAO TODAY

Davao City — The New People’s Army rebuffed the Armed Forces of the Philippines 10th Infantry Division’s statement that the explosives they used that wounded seven soldiers in Pantukan, Compostela Valley Tuesday contained feces.

In a statement, NPA Southern Mindanao spokesperson Rigoberto Sanchez owned up the September 3 dawn blast, but clarified that they used “command-detonated explosives and not the falsely reported pressure-type bombs that are banned by international laws like the Ottawa Treaty. “

Seven soldiers conducted a foot patrol early dawn Tuesday against NPAs when they were wounded by an explosive in Sitio Lantawan, Barangay Napnapan, Pantukan.

The 10th ID earlier sent a statement quoting Camp Panacan Station Hospital Orthopedic Surgeon Doctor Victor Dato saying the shrapnels recovered on the wounded soldiers were found to have bacteria “Enterobacter Cloacae and Streptococcus Agalacteiae which is commonly found in the human intestine.”

“This proves that the NPA contaminate these landmines with human or animal feces,” Dato said.

The military statement went on further to say that the shrapnel contains “possibly a deadly toxin not usually found in steel rebars and nails.”

“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. A similar pattern was exhibited by another landmine victim who died recently, whose flesh quickly deteriorated and blackened despite heavy antibiotic treatment,” Dato said.

With this, the military goes on to say that the infection was “no longer a result of the fecal bacteria, but possibly a deadlier venom ingredient.”

Maj. Jake Thaddeus Obligado, Commander of the 10th Civil Military Operations Battalion of the 10th Infantry Division said, “This is no longer the act of a human being. This is simply inhuman. The risk to innocent lives of these landmines has just been increased exponentially by what has been discovered in these findings.”

But Sanchez said the military’s statement is “pure invention” saying that the NPA only used “guerrilla warfare weapons, such as but not limited to, command-detonated explosives made up of traditional, non-biologically toxic ingredients.”

Sanchez called 10th ID’s Civil Military Operations Battalion chief Major Jake Obligado and other “spin-doctors” of the Eastern Mindanao as “desperate copycats to the Obama government that is now justifying its military occupation in Syria by accusing the Assad regime of engaging in chemical weapons attack.”

“The bacteria and poison are not found in the NPA bombs, but in the AFP headquarters, camps, detachments and in the AFP echelons itself,” Sanchez quipped.

The NPA spokesperson also criticized the military’s claim that NPA landmines were color- coded.

Sanchez also hit the Armed Forces as “the protector, coddler, running dogs of the US imperialist mining and other big business, bureaucrat capitalists and landlords.”

Earlier, Rubi del Mundo, spokesperson of the National Democratic Front Southern Mindanao said the military has intensified its operations in Pantukan and nearby towns in Comval because of the resumption of large-scale mining explorations of the US-owned Russel mining in the area. (davaotoday.com)