A Rejoinder to Maj. Armand Rico on the Mine Ban Treaty

Rigoberto F. Sanchez
Spokesperson
Merardo Arce Command
Southern Mindanao Regional Operational Command
New People's Army

July 21, 2008

 Maj. Armand Rico of the Eastern Mindanao Command, spokesperson
of the AFP's biggest area command, opts to stick to his myopic
understanding of the Mine Ban Treaty even if it is quite obvious that
his ranting is leading to nowhere.  

 His dim-witted comprehension of the 1997 Convention on the
Prohibition of the Use, Stockpiling, Production and Transfer of
Anti-Personnel Mines and Their Destruction, also known as the Mine Ban
Treaty or Ottawa Treaty is a mark of the AFP's classical propaganda
fraud. By alleging that command-detonated mines of the type being used
by the NPA against the AFP are covered by the treaty, Maj. Rico cuts a
figure of an AFP officer, and a spokesperson at that, whose
understanding of the Mine Ban Treaty does not go beyond the treaty
title.  

 Failure on his part to understand the language, intent and
spirit of international documents governing the conduct of armed
conflict is an addition to the AFP's arsenal of duplicity. He is
well-advised to read on and correctly comprehend; not speculate nor
fabricate. But that too, might be akin to asking for justice from
incorrigible violators of human rights and international humanitarian
law. And so, we allow him to wallow in ignorance.  

 It is noteworthy that Maj. Rico has yet to issue a comment on
our twin challenge that if he is serious in his deceitful advocacy of
the Mine Ban Treaty, he should 1) call on their United States
imperialist master to sign it and join the 158 signatories, and 2) put
a stop to the AFP's practice of surrounding their detachments with
"pressure-detonated" anti-personnel mines explicitly disallowed by the
treaty because they pose a direct danger to the civilian populace since
their camps are built within population centers, which is another
continuing travesty of international humanitarian law.

 His silence on the matter is a public admission of a known
fact: that the AFP makes a mockery of human rights and international
humanitarian law. The torture of a child committed by Sgt. Manuel Doria
and Airforce 2nd Class Rex Dimaculangan of the Philippine Air Force
Tactical Operations Group in Panacan, Davao City on July is not a mere
isolated incident. The atrocities done by AFP personnel is rooted in
its anti-people and fascist orientation.