ZAMBOANGA CITY, 9 November 2005 — Army officials yesterday condemned the killing of 3 civilians by New People’s Army (NPA) rebels on a remote village in the southern Philippine city of Butuan.
Insurgents raided a small missionary church at the weekend in Bugsukan village and killed 3 workers and wounded 3 more, including a 12-year old boy.
Maj. Gen. Alexander Yano, the Philippine Army’s chief of staff, said the rebels fired indiscriminately at the people inside the chapel with automatic rifles.
“We condemn this barbaric NPA attack against innocent people. The blood is on their hands. They have disregarded innocent lives in the pursuit of a blind ideology. It is now a war against humanity the NPA is waging,” Yano told Arab News.
Police said at least 15 rebels barged into the chapel ran by the missionary group called Rizalian, and opened fire on the crowd.
Some 60 people were inside, police officer Henry Macalam said in a separate interview.
An earlier said some missionaries were former NPA rebels, who surrendered to the military and are now active in humanitarian activities.
A regional army commander, Maj. Gen. Carduzo Luna, said the attack was triggered by refusal of village officials to secretly support the NPA.
“The motive of the massacre was the non-support of the village officials and the community to the rotten cause of the underground movement,” he said.
Luna also said the communist guerrillas have been “resorting to criminal acts to silence individuals who are not supporting their cause.”
He also appealed to the Commission on Human Rights to investigate the killings and file charges against the perpetrators.
Last week, NPA rebels also killed two soldiers and wounded four others in an ambush in Bislig town in Surigao del Sur province.
The soldiers were on a truck on their way to an army post when the insurgents detonated a land mine and then opened fire on the vehicle.
Military officials also denounced the rebels’ use of land mines as a criminal act. Land mines have been banned as a weapon worldwide.
The rebels have also been accused of using child warriors.
The NPA has vowed to intensify their attacks on government targets after Manila suspended safety and immunity guarantee for its negotiators following the collapse of the peace talks.
The government suspended the Joint Agreement on Safety and Immunity Guarantee (JASIG) after the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) and its political arm, the National Democratic Front (NDF), refused to return from the peace negotiations.
The rebels are demanding that Manila ask the United States and the European Union to strike them off from their lists of foreign terror organizations.
The CPP, NDF and their armed wing, NPA, were blacklisted on Manila’s prodding.
Peace negotiations between the government and the rebel group have been suspended since August last year, following the NDF pullout due to their continued inclusion in the terror lists.
