PRESS RELEASE
Information Bureau
Communist Party of the Philippines

NPA in calamity areas are helping in rehabilitation of people's lives-CPP
December 3, 2004

Units of the New People's Army (NPA) in calamity-stricken areas have been helping out in rescue operations especially in areas which are most inaccessible even to the military.

CPP spokesman Gregorio "Ka Roger" Rosal disclosed that NPA fighters have been directed by their commands to help in rebuilding houses and farms. He said that local people's revolutionary mass organizations and Party branches are also leading and helping organize relief operations and are coordinating with civic and media organizations involved in relief work.

"In many of these areas," Rosal said, "it was the local NPA unit that was the first to carry out search and rescue operations and in organizing the masses to help those who need urgent medical and economic assistance."

Rosal said "relief goods are ever valuable to help the calamity victims survive the next day or two. However, the more important thing is to address the long-term solution to end the people's poverty and oppression."

He said many of the people who were victimized by the floods and landslides were poor peasants who were driven to the hinterlands by landgrabbers and logging concessionaires.

At the same time, Rosal said that soldiers of the AFP carrying out search and rescue operations are not targets of the NPA. Rosal said that this is in accordance with international rules of war and provisions of the Comprehensive Agreement on Resepect for Human Rights and International Humanitarian Law (CARHRIHL).

Rosal said: "In compliance with the CARHRIHL and international rules of war, the NPA desists from carrying out offensive military operations against soldiers involved in search and rescue operations."

He said, however, that NPA units will remain vigilant against AFP offensive military operations. At the same time, he warned the AFP against carrying out offensive operations in the guise of carrying out "humanitarian missions."

Rosal reiterated that the soldiers belonging to the Philippine Army's 56th Infantry Battalion that was ambushed by the NPA on November 30, 2004 in San Ildefonso, Bulacan had been conducting offensive military operations for the past two weeks in pursuit of an NPA unit in the area. According to the NPA-Eastern Bulacan Command, the area covered by the 56th IBPA included Angat, Pandi, Norzagaray and Dona Remedios Trinidad.

"The amount of firepower they were carrying--among which was an M-60 machine gun and grenade launchers--betrays the real intent of their operation," Rosal added.

"They are shifting the burden of proof to the NPA. It is they who should prove that they were indeed carrying out a humanitarian mission," Rosal said.

"The facts are: They were carrying so much firepower not needed for rescue operations. They were they not carrying the tools necessary to carry out rescue operations. They were not carrying foodstuff or other relief items for calamity victims. They were such a long distance away from the flooded areas and in a mountainous area where there were no reports of typhoon-related accidents," Rosal enumerated.

"If they are really serious in their claim that the NPA violated rules of war, then they should file a case in the CARHRIHL Joint Monitoring Committee and submit evidence of their claim and stop issuing falsehoods to deceive the people," Rosal added.

Reference:
Anne Buenaventura
Media Officer
Cellphone Number: +63910-240-3553



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