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Published: 15 November 2022 15 November 2022

The Communist Party of the Philippines published on 29 October a report on the war crimes committed by security forces of the Government of the Republic of the Philippines in the past six years. The report, “AFP and PNP War Crimes” focused on cases of “summary executions” committed by the Armed Forces of the Philippines, Philippine National Police and other armed agents of the Manila government against civilians, non-combatants and hors de combat belonging to the CPP, New People’s Army and the National Democratic Front of the Philippines.

The CPP revealed, “Over the past six years, at least 101 active and retired members of the CPP and NPA, NDFP consultants and personnel, and their civilian companions who were captured, wounded or no longer in the position to fight, were unlawfully killed” by security agents of the Manila government.

Among those killed were 34 non-combatants and 44 hors de combat, the report said. “Of the hors de combat, 22 were wounded in action who were ‘finished off’ instead of being arrested and cared for… Of the non-combatants, 19 were members of the Party and the NDFP who were not directly involved in the armed conflict or were not in the battlefield.”

The report asserted that these killings constitute war crimes, “as stipulated in the Geneva Conventions and its protocols, and in the provisions of the Comprehensive Agreement on Respect for Human Rights and International Humanitarian Law.” Then NDFP Chairman Mariano Orosa and GRP President Joseph Estrada signed the CARHRIHL on 10 April 1998, as part of the peace talks between the two belligerent parties.

The report said that 20 of those killed were senior citizens, retired members of the CPP and NPA. It further revealed that the AFP and PNP try to cover up their crimes by reporting victims as “killed in armed battles” or having “resisted arrest”. Various ‘evidence’ like guns, explosives and ‘subversive documents’ were planted at the murder scenes, the report asserted.

The report cited the latest case involving the capture and killing of NPA-Negros Island spokesperson Ka Juanito Magbanua by the AFP 94th Infantry Battalion on 10 October 2022. The AFP claimed Ka Juanito was “killed in battle”.

In a related news, 63-year old CPP Central Committee Member Emmanuel Fernandez died of natural causes on 30 October in a village of Sen. Ninoy Aquino town, Sultan Kudarat province. News of his death, however, attracted a unit of the AFP 603rd Infantry Brigade, whereupon the soldiers peppered Fernandez’s corpse with bullets. The AFP later claimed that Fernandez was killed in an armed encounter.