Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, June 9) — Vice President Leni Robredo condemned the deaths of Far Eastern University football player Keith Absalon and his cousin, Nolven caused by a land mine planted by communist rebels.
“Land mines are murder. We condemn this incident without qualification,” Robredo said in a statement on Wednesday.
“No goal or ideology can justify the use of such devices,” she added.
Robredo also stressed that the Ottawa Treaty banned the use of anti-personnel land mines.
“Hindi ito pakikibaka; labas ito sa usapin ng paghahangad nating matigil ang hidwaan,” Robredo said.
[Translation: This is not a struggle. This is outside of our desire to end conflict.]
The victims died after an improvised bomb went off while they were cycling along Barangay Anas in Masbate province last June 6. The Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) and its armed wing, the New People’s Army, took “full responsibility” for the incident.
The communist group has vowed to extend compensation to the families of the victims, and to cooperate with the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) in the Joint Monitoring Committee (JMC) should a complaint be filed. The JMC was formed in 2004 to monitor the implementation of the Comprehensive Agreement on Respect for Human Rights and International Humanitarian Law between the government and the NDFP.
The government earlier called on the CPP to surrender the people responsible for the “senseless murder” of Keith and Nolven, but the group maintained that the alleged perpetrators were under its jurisdiction.
