AGC-NPA condemns Manapla massacre

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The Apolinario Gatmaitan Command of the New People’s Army – Negros Island (AGC-NPA) strongly condemned the massacre of four NPA members at Hacienda Builder, Barangay San Pablo, Manapla, Negros Occidental yesterday, September 30, around 2:00 in the morning.

Combined troops of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) and Philippine National Police (PNP) conducting a Joint Enhanced Military and Police Operation (JEMPO) were allegedly in an hour-long firefight against the four NPA members.

But Ka Juanito Magbanua, AGC-NPA spokesperson, contradicted the state forces storyline based on the accounts of residents.

“No encounter happened between the AFP/PNP and the NPA and it was not true that a gun fight lasted for almost an hour,” Magbanua said. “The butcher AFP/PNP entered the house during the early hours of the morning and mercilessly shot the comrades while asleep.”

He further questioned the supposed one hour encounter since the house did not show any signs of gun shots.

According to him, their comrades asked the owner of the house to allow them to stay because they were not feeling well, therefore, they were considered hors de combat (or were not in the capacity to fight) when they were shot to death.

This is a violation based on the rules of war as stated in Protocol II of the Geneva Conventions and the Comprehensive Agreement on Respect of Human Rights and International Humanitarian Law (CARHRIHL) signed by the two governments–Government of the Republic of the Philippines (GRP) and the People’s Democratic Government represented by the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP), he said.

The AGC-NPA asserted that the AFP/PNP showed it as a legitimate encounter to conceal its brutal crime and that killing NPA members and NDF consultants rendered as hors de combat is not new to state forces.

“They loyally obey the command of their bloodthirsty Commander-in-Chief Duterte in his statement ‘kill them all, take no prisoner of war’,” Magbanua said.#

AGC-NPA condemns Manapla massacre