We continue to hope for Mindanao
TWO Mindanao incidents made the front pages of newspapers this week. On Monday, the New People’s Army (NPA) released five Davao police officers they had captured nine days earlier. Also on Monday, one of three foreign kidnap victims held by the Abu Sayyaf was reported beheaded, for failure of his family and government to pay ransom.
The NPA had the Davao policemen in white Tshirts prominently marked with “POW – Prisoner of War.” They turned them over to Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte and an NPA representative read the release order, in accordance, he said, with the 1949 Geneva Convention’s Protocol 1 on Treatment of Prisoners of War.
The Geneva Convention was first adopted in 1929 after World War I to define humanitarian protection for prisoners of war by a Detaining Power. It was revised and replaced by the Geneva Convention of 1949 with 196 countries as parties to the convention. In citing the Geneva Convention when it released the five Davao policemen as “prisoners of war,” the NPA obviously sees its ongoing rebellion as a war, with it as the Detaining Power.
In the case of the beheading of a Canadian kidnap victim, the Armed Forces had earlier declared that the Philippine government is against any payment of ransom and that its priority is the safe rescue of the hostages. The Abu Sayyaf’s answer was the beheading of Canadian John Ridsdel. They still hold Ridsdel’s fellow kidnap victims from a resort island on Samal Island near Davao City, along with some 20 other foreigners kidnapped at other times in other places in Mindanao.
The two incidents – the NPA’s releasing its “prisoners of war” and the Abu Sayyaf’s beheading a foreign hostage – reflect sadly on the state of peace and order and on our government’s ability to assert its authority in that part of the country.
No wonder the United States and Australia have both issued travel warnings to their citizens to exercise extreme caution when travelling to Mindanao, particularly Zamboanga Peninsula, and to avoid all non-essential travel to the Sulu Archipelago and the Sulu Sea.
In the wake of the beheading incident, Malacañang said there would be no letup in pursuing the Abu Sayyaf, while national police and military forces said their joint task group was intensifying its operations to neutralize the lawless elements. We have heard these assurances before. We continue to hope for really good news that shows that despite all the setbacks, our government is in control.