DAVAO CITY (Mindanao Examiner / Jan. 22, 2013) – A government soldier was killed and five others wounded in a roadside bombing before dawn Tuesday in the southern Philippines, officials said.
Officials said New People’s Army detonated a landmine hitting a convoy of military vehicles in the village of Calapagan in Davao Oriental’s Lupon town.
Col. Francisco Lorenzo, Jr., commander of the 28th Infantry Battalion, said the soldiers just came from a disaster rescue operation and were heading back to their camp when attacked by rebels.
“In this time of calamity, we are calling for our brothers and sisters, even those in the movement to join the government in helping out the communities affected from the previous typhoon and now on the recent flooding. This thought should prevail,” Lorenzo said in a statement sent to the Mindanao Examiner.
The army called the attack a human rights violation.
“The incident is a clear manifestation of the NPA’s lack of concern and sympathy for those affected by natural calamities. For a group which proclaims to be for the masses, they have proven to be otherwise with their repeated attacks on individuals and groups who are only trying to help alleviate the sufferings of people affected by calamity,” Capt. Edren Santiago, a spokesman for the 701st Infantry Brigade, said.
The NPA has been fighting for decades to overthrow the democratic government and install a Maoist state in the country. (Mindanao Examiner)
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