Wanted: Human Rights for Soldiers

“Soldier shot dead while bringing his kids to school”. This was the shocking news that recently hit the headlines. A young soldier was senselessly killed in front of his children while he was accompanying them to school in Paquibato District, Davao City. They add to the statistics of children losing their fathers from treacherous acts of murderers known as New People’s Army (NPA). How many more children will lose their soldier-fathers as a result of indiscriminate criminal acts by the NPA?

In an asymmetric warfare, you don’t expect an adversary like the CPP-NPA-NDF to fight fair and square. The CPP-NPA-NDF will exploit every inch of opportunity to deliver lethal blows against government security forces. While our soldiers adhere to human rights and rule of law to carry out their given mandate, the NPA takes advantage on this same adherence by launching treacherous strikes against the former. The NPA capitalizes on its political and legal shield called CPP-NDF that protects the NPA from prosecution and public condemnation. They are able to justify their actions no matter how grossly unjust and deceptive these maybe. So how about the unsuspecting soldier who was indiscriminately killed by the NPA? He does not have a “shield” to protect him from such grave human rights violations of the NPA. It is like a boxing match with your both hands tied while the opponent hits you at will.

When are we going to learn the lessons of the Maoist guerilla warfare? The AFP’s weakness has become the strength of the CPP-NPA-NDF. While the AFP confronts the armed component which is the NPA, no government entity confronts the political (CPP) and legal (NDF) components. In fact, they are already in the midst of our government. They also have human rights groups to cry foul against our soldiers each time they are at the operational disadvantage. But who cries foul for the soldiers? Definitely, not the CHR.

Photo Courtesy of human-rights.wikispaces.com