The Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) demands the Duterte regime and its
Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) to accord humane treatment to and
expeditiously release wounded New People’s Army Red fighter Zaldy Cañete in the
same way that the NPA considers captured soldiers as prisoners-of-war to be
treated leniently and prompty released.

Cañete was captured last May 12 after police and military operatives placed him
under arrest while he was in the Intensive Care Unit in a hospital in Don
Carlos, Bukidnon. He was recovering from a brain surgery to treat a bullet
injury he sustained in a firefight last May 10 in Kitaotao town. He was under
the watch of his family and hospital doctors.

Cañete must be expeditiously released by the Duterte regime by force of its
obligations under the Comprehensive Agreement on Respect for Human Rights and
International Humanitarian Law (CARHRIHL) which stipulate that persons deprived
of their liberty for reasons related to the armed conflict shall be considered
for safe release on humanitarian or other grounds.

The release of captured combatants involved in an armed conflict is a
humanitarian exercise practiced since World War II and enshrined in the Geneva
Conventions, and which the NPA strictly observes.