DAVAO CITY (Mindanao Examiner / Mar. 3, 2014) – At least 11 government soldiers and five rescue volunteers of the Philippine Red Cross were wounded in a roadside explosion blamed by the military to communist rebels in the restive southern region of Mindanao.
The military’s Eastern Mindanao Command said the volunteers were on their way to pick up soldiers wounded in an earlier blast in Davao del Sur’s Bansalan town late Sunday. Among the wounded on the military side were two officers.
Capt. Alberto Caber, a spokesman for the Eastern Mindanao Command, said the rescue volunteers were in a convoy of three ambulances when hit by the bomb detonated by the New People’s Army.
“Five volunteers were hurt in NPA landmine blast. The ambulance was heavily damaged from the blast,” he told the regional newspaper Mindanao Examiner.
The military identified the wounded rescue volunteers as Henaro Dumayas, Alberto Cabual Jr, Arnel Generoso, Jun Dumayas and Bonita dela Cruz. And the injured soldiers as Lts. Ian Rogel Ngalew, Joesepher Ansay, Cpls. Joefrey Espina, Totoh Imar, Pfcs. Rowell De Guzman, Brian Ferrer, Jovane Adam, Edwin Mamalinta, Pvts. Gonzalo Gella, Rodel John Reynalda and militia Albert Velasco.
Caber said four rebels were also killed in the fighting that ensued following the attack.
Gen. Ricardo Rainier Cruz III, the division commander, condemned the rebel attack, saying the NPA violated a treaty that banned the use of landmines, calling it a “cowardly act.” He also called on human rights groups to condemn the NPA atrocities and investigate the NPA on its continued use of landmines.
“We call on various human rights group to investigate this incident. We appeal to the peace-loving community to join us in bringing lasting peace in the region,” Cruz said.
He said since 2010, near 500 people had been either killed or wounded in landmine attacks perpetrated by the NPA in eastern Mindanao alone.
There was no immediate statement from the NPA about the latest attack. The rebels have been waging a secessionist war in the country for decades now. (Mindanao Examiner)
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