CITY OF SAN FERNANDO – A Philippine Army official on Tuesday accused the New People’s Army in Central Luzon of manufacturing new landmines and of planning to use these in an ambush along a road in Nueva Ecija and Aurora in violation of the Mine Ban Treaty, to which the Philippine government is a signatory to in August 2000.
Brig. Gen. Emmanuel Bautista, commander of the 702nd Infantry Brigade, raised the accusation after soldiers recovered six supposedly new bombs buried in two spots that were located five meters apart in the forested portions of the Sierra Madre mountain ranges in Bongabon, Nueva Ecija on July 4.
The NPA in the region has yet to confirm or deny owning the cache. The military last monitored the local communist army of using landmines in a 2002 ambush along the Pantabangan-Canili Road where a soldier was killed. The NPA did not own that attack.
Talking to Punto Central Luzon by phone, Bautista said the location of the items, unearthed in Sitio Tamale in Barangay Dimagla, was pinpointed by an NPA rebel who recently surrendered to the military.
At least seven clashes that broke out there last January and February left dead a soldier and 10 rebels, previous military reports said.
Its media monitoring counted at least 145 deaths in 2005 or three times higher than the 47 fatalities reported in 2004.
The Philippines government is a party to the Mine Ban Treaty and Convention on Conventional Weapons.
Landmine Monitor said in its website that the landmine bill “is not a priority for Congress, especially after President Macapagal-Arroyo declared a state of national emergency in February 2006.
It said that the Armed Forces of the Philippines stated it has never used anti-personnel mines in its campaigns against communist and Muslim insurgents. The government also reported it had disposed of its entire inventory of 2,460 Claymore mines in July 2008.
Landmine Monitor said the NPA provided no evidence to its claim that military “use landmines and lay them on paths where they expect the NPA and the people to take.”
Brig. Gen. Emmanuel Bautista, commander of the 702nd Infantry Brigade, raised the accusation after soldiers recovered six supposedly new bombs buried in two spots that were located five meters apart in the forested portions of the Sierra Madre mountain ranges in Bongabon, Nueva Ecija on July 4.
The NPA in the region has yet to confirm or deny owning the cache. The military last monitored the local communist army of using landmines in a 2002 ambush along the Pantabangan-Canili Road where a soldier was killed. The NPA did not own that attack.
Talking to Punto Central Luzon by phone, Bautista said the location of the items, unearthed in Sitio Tamale in Barangay Dimagla, was pinpointed by an NPA rebel who recently surrendered to the military.
At least seven clashes that broke out there last January and February left dead a soldier and 10 rebels, previous military reports said.
Its media monitoring counted at least 145 deaths in 2005 or three times higher than the 47 fatalities reported in 2004.
The Philippines government is a party to the Mine Ban Treaty and Convention on Conventional Weapons.
Landmine Monitor said in its website that the landmine bill “is not a priority for Congress, especially after President Macapagal-Arroyo declared a state of national emergency in February 2006.
It said that the Armed Forces of the Philippines stated it has never used anti-personnel mines in its campaigns against communist and Muslim insurgents. The government also reported it had disposed of its entire inventory of 2,460 Claymore mines in July 2008.
Landmine Monitor said the NPA provided no evidence to its claim that military “use landmines and lay them on paths where they expect the NPA and the people to take.”
