NPA ROMULO JALLORES COMMAND RELEASES LT. FIDELINO AND PFC. NEMENO

Negotiating Panel
National Democratic Front of the Philippines
August 18, 2004

The National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) announces that the Romulo Jallores Command of the New People�s Army and the Communist Party of the Philippines and NDFP Bicol have successfully carried out the safe and orderly release of the prisoners of war 1st Lieutenant Ronaldo Fidelino and Private First Class Ronel Nemeno. The NPA custodial unit carried out a medical check of the two prisoners to ascertain their satisfactory health condition. They were then handed over to representatives of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC). The ICRC in turn has conducted its own medical check and briefing before turning over the two POWs to representatives of the Government of the Republic of the Philippines (GRP). Thereafter they have been presented to their families and the media.

The two POWs were captured by the NPA in an NPA tactical offensive carried out on March 1, 2004 in Tinambac, Camarines Sur. They have been released in observance of the Geneva Conventions and Protocols. The NPA Romulo Jallores Command correctly considered Lt. Fidelino and Pfc. Nemeno as hors de combat after they surrendered to the NPA unit. Thereafter, they have been accorded humane treatment in accordance with the NPA�s long standing policy of lenient treatment toward prisoners of war, the Geneva Conventions and Protocols, and the Comprehensive Agreement on Respect for Human Rights and International Humanitarian Law (CARHRIHL). The release is also carried out in response to the request of the GRP through GRP Panel Chairperson Silvestre H. Bello III and the appeals of the prisoners� families and those of personages and organizations, such as the ICRC, which have expressed support for a negotiated settlement on the issue of Prisoners of War within the purview of the CARHRIHL and the Geneva Conventions and Protocol I.

We express our thanks and appreciation to the International Committee of the Red Cross for their inestimable participation in the safe and orderly release of Lt. Fidelino and Pfc. Nemeno. As in earlier safe and orderly releases of AFP and PNP personnel in the custody of the NPA, we deem the participation of the ICRC, as the officially mandated guardian of the Geneva Conventions and Protocols, essential to the safe and orderly release of prisoners of war.

This release of the two prisoners of war is one more concrete proof that the �terrorist� listing of the CPP and NPA and the NDFP Chief Political Consultant Jose Maria Sison is totally baseless. The CPP, NPA and NDFP constitute a national liberation movement that adheres to international humanitarian law.

The NDFP hopes that this gesture of goodwill and confidence will be responded to by the GRP with the immediate release of political prisoners, such as Donato Continente and Manolito Matricio and his fellow Mamburao farmers, and many other political prisoners.

Luis G. Jalandoni
Chairperson, NDFP Negotiating Panel

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