Metro Manila (CNN Philippines) – Lt. Gen. Aurelio Baladad, chief of the Eastern Mindanao Command, once again condemned on Sunday (July 19) the New People’s Army for its continued “indiscriminate” use of improvised explosive devices, which have injured or killed several civilians since the start of 2015.
“The CPP/NPA/NDF is really not sincere about peace in the region,” Baladad said in a statement issued by the EastMinCom Public Information Office, which is headed by Army Capt. Alberto Caber.
The NPA is the armed organization of the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP), which has closely linked to the National Democratic Front (NDF).
“There are so many innocent lives that were lost, people injured, and properties damaged due to their indiscriminate use of IEDs,” Baladad added. “This security concern is not only of the security forces but of everbody’s.”
Baladad made the statement a day after suspected NPA rebels planted an IED near the Mabini Police Station in Compostela Valley.
The bomb went off at around 8:20 p.m. on Saturday, its shrapnel seriously injuring a civilian identified as Ravelyn Ababa Cobrado, a 21-year-old resident of Purok 2, Cadunan, Mabini.
Civilians and security forces in the area took her to the Davao Regional Hospital.
Witnesses told police that a motorcycle sped away from the site of the incident.
A team composed of members of the 71st Infantry Battalion and Mabini Municipal Police Station was dispatched to look for the bombers.
The EastMinCom noted two recent bombings that they suspect NPA rebels of carrying out.
One took place last April 1, on a road in Barangay Mahayag in San Miguel, Surigao del Sur. A civilian was killed and seven other people were seriously wounded in that incident.
The other took place on April 20, on the national highway in Sitio Bagong Silang, Barangay San Vicente in Makilala, North Cotabato. Two civilians were injured in that incident.
The EastMinCom added that, from January 1 to July 13 this year, its security patrols had seized 57 unexploded IEDs made by the NPA.
“Most of these IEDs were planted by the NPA bandits along roads within populated areas,” the EastMinCom statement said.
“The continuous manufacture and use of these IEDs are gross violations of the Comprehensive Agreement on Respect of Human Rights and International Humanitarian Law (CARHRIHL).”
