NPA Releases POW After Long Captivity

On June 9, Sgt. Ramiro G. Lawas was turned over to the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte. He had been in captivity for 14 months, living with the NPA in the mountains of Compostela Valley province.

By GILBERT. PACIFICAR
Bulatlat.com

COMPOSTELA VALLEY - Somewhere in a hinterland village in this province in Southern Mindanao, cadres of the New People's Army were making sure that the event they had been preparing for weeks would take place without any hitches. Some of them had been assigned to guard Sgt. Ramiro G. Lawas, a 43-year-old soldier belonging to the Army's 60th Infantry Battalion who was captured by the guerrillas in April last year. They also put up check points in strategic areas in and around the village. Days before, some had prepared a cultural presentation that depicted the life of the guerrillas in the countryside.  

Ka Oris, NDF-Mindanao spokesman (center), interviewed by media during turnover of Army Sgt. Lawas (left) to ICRC

Photo by Rolando Pinsoy

On this day, June 9, Sergeant. Lawas was to be released. Although the guerrillas were not exactly tensed for this big day, they were not taking any chances. After all, the release was originally scheduled at least a week before but was postponed due to the military operations in the area. They kept watch as the villagers started to mill about the basketball court in the village, where the release was to take place.

About 500 meters from the basketball court, by the roadside out of view from the public, Sergeant Lawas was anxious. Every time he hears a motorcycle come along, he would crane his neck to see who arrived. The guerrillas who guarded him would, every now and then, ask him if he was all right. Lawas would smile broadly. It was evident that he was excited to once again see his wife and children.

Turned over

At around 3 p.m., a platoon of guerrillas from the Camp for the Administration of Detainees (CAD) of the NPA's Ruperto Tuyac Command turned Lawas over to the ICRC, which conducted a medical check on him and found the soldier in good health.  He had been in captivity for 14 months, living with the NPA in the mountains of Compostela Valley province.

The ICRC then turned the prisoner of war over to Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte, who came with a group of peace advocates and representatives from the diocese of Butuan led by Fr. Roberto Batawan and Sr. Annie Oser as well as Bayan Muna's Joel Virador and Dr. Shalom Lorenzana.

After the turnover, the group went to the basketball court for the official program. Ka Oris, the spokesman of the National Democratic Front-Mindanao, read a statement from the Front in which he said the release was "an act emanating from the exercise of the People's Democratic Government's political authority."  He also said Sergeant Lawas was set free on humanitarian grounds.

Treated well

"I thought I was going to die that day," the Army sergeant said of his capture. "I am grateful to the NPA for being kind to me. They treated me well and never laid a hand on me," he said in Visayan during an interview with members of the press who covered the release.

He continued: "They treated me not as an enemy but almost like a fellow guerrilla. They treated my wounds. Their behavior was so different from the behavior of my fellow soldiers in the military."

Sergeant Lawas said he was treated with the respect befitting a prisoner of war (POW). He cited the similar handing of the NPA of Gen. Victor Obillo and Capt. Eduardo Montealto, who were POWs by the NPA in 1999.  

Duterte thanked the NPA for abiding with the protocols of the Geneva Conventions on the treatment of POWs. "I never doubted that you treated Sgt. Lawas well. This was proven by the sergeant's good health. I thank the leaders of the CPP/NPA/NDF in Region 11 for respecting and recognizing the human rights of POWs. I salute all of you," he told the crowd in Visayan during the program.

Ambushed

Lawas was captured during an ambush staged by the combined forces of the Second Pulang Bagani Command and the Conrado Heredia Command-Front 20 of the NPA in Davao Oriental on April 4 last year.

Ten soldiers were killed in the ambush while 12 others were wounded. The NPA guerrillas also recovered eight Armalite rifles, one M203 grenade launcher and one 60mm mortar. 

Since the ambush, the military declared Sergeant Lawas missing and, later, dead. He told reporters that the military did not exert enough effort to find or rescue him.

Lawas has since been reunited with his family: his wife Norma and their four children -- Mary Nerian, 16; Mark Neron, 14; Mia Nina, 12 and Mari Neth, 10. "I only wish that my family will remain happy from now on," he said. Tragically, the baby Norma was carrying when he was captured died even before she could give birth. "I didn't even know if it was a boy or a girl," the father said.

Unilateral action

Lawas's release was a unilateral action by the NPA. In a statement, Rubi del Mundo, the spokesperson of NDF-Southern Mindanao, said "the NDF saw no basis for engaging the GRP (Government of the Republic of the Philippines) in the release of the prisoner of war. With its armed forces running berserk in committing barefaced violations of people's rights and of international humanitarian law, the ruling U.S.-Macapagal Arroyo regime is clearly currently unfit to participate in processes (that) highlight respect for human rights and international humanitarian law." 

Indeed, a few days before Lawas's release, the military allegedly tortured and summarily executed members of the NPA during a raid in Davao Oriental. The NPA's Willy Zapanta Command said the cadres had been captured and should have been treated as POWs. (See related story: Another Case of Torture and Murder Hounds AFP in Davao Oriental)

Rigoberto F. Sanchez, the spokesperson of NPA's Merardo Arce Command-Southern Mindanao Regional Operations Command, said "the capture, 14-month captivity and the release of Sgt. Ramiro Lawas highlighted the stark difference between the NPA as the revolutionary people's army and AFP/PNP as the fascist army of the landlord-comprador state."

Sanchez added that "as the GRP and its armed forces continue to be stuck in the chronic crises of the ruling system they desperately defend at the expense of the people, and while they continue to disregard human rights and international humanitarian law that govern the conduct of war, the NPA will continue to strengthen its determination to uphold the interest of the Filipino people and the revolution." Bulatlat.com

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