NPA ordered to pay blast victims

DAVAO CITY, Philippines – In a rare move, the communist-led National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) ordered the rebel New People’s Army (NPA) to pay civilians who were hurt in a grenade attack in this city last September 1.

Rubi del Mundo, spokesperson of NDFP-Southern Mindanao, said the directive came from the Regional Council of the NDFP in Mindanao.

On September 1, at least 41 residents in Barangay Fatima, Paquibato District in this city were wounded when a grenade exploded in a gymnasium packed with people, mostly children, who were watching a magician’s show.

In a statement issued after the blast, the NPA’s Merardo Arce Command claimed responsibility for it but said the rebels’ real target was the military camp beside the gym. The grenade bounced from one of the huts inside the camp and exploded at the venue of the magic show.

The NPA acknowledged that the incident was a “display of serious but isolated human error.”

Del Mundo said that peace advocates and professionals in the community will help facilitate the indemnification process for the victims. “The directive is a unilateral exercise of revolutionary political authority by a government of the working class and peasantry that has its own legal and judicial system and rules in accordance with its political principles and circumstances,” del Mundo said.

Del Mundo released an initial list of 41 residents who will be compensated.

The military has demanded that the NPA give up those responsible for the attack, but the guerrillas have refused. The rebel army said it would punish them under its own laws. – Rappler.com