Military accused of using minors to fight rebels

Zamboanga City: Communist rebels over the weekend accused the Armed Forces of the Philippinesof actively recruiting minors for military operations against the armed movement. The allegation was made after members of the New People’s Army (NPA) discovered that a prisoner they were currently holding is reportedly a 17-year-old member of the Civilian Auxiliary Force Geographical Unit (Cafgu) of the Philippine Army.

According to Rigoberto Sanchez, spokesman of the NPA’s Merardo Arce Command based in Com-postela Valley, recruiting minors for combat operations have become the military’s official policy after allegedly failing in its counter-insurgency campaign.

“The cat is finally out of the bag. . . that in its failed and defeated Operation Plan Bantay Laya 2, the 10th Infantry Division of the Armed Forces of the Philippines recruits and arms minors as combat pawns in its war against the people and the revolutionary forces,” Sanchez said.

Recruitment and training

The 17-year-old militia, Juve Latiban, was apprehended last month by NPA guerillas with his companion, Sergeant Bienvenido Arguelles, as the two were passing through a check point set up by the rebels in the village of Upper Ulip in Compostela Valley’s Monkayo town.

Sanchez reported that Latiban was not even 16 years old when he was recruited in October 2008 by Private First Class Alvin Latiban, a resident of the cited village.

“Together with his batch mates that included 18 other minors, they underwent 45-day training at the 1001st Infantry Brigade headquarters in Tuburan [village] in Mawab town in Compostela Valley,” Sanchez said, quoting from information provided by the arrested militia.

Bogus birth certificates

The rebel spokesman also related that Latiban confessed to being provided fake birth certificates, which stated they were already 18 years old when recruited by the military as militias.

“[Latiban’s] own bogus birth certificate showed that he was born on 1990 instead of the factual 1992 so that it would appear that he was already 18 at the time of his training,” Sanchez added.

“[Latiban] confessed that the 72nd Infantry Battalion trainers knew their actual ages.

His first assignment was at the Philippine Army detachment in Upper Ulip in Monkayo.

Private First Class Latiban is now assigned in the 10th Infantry Division,” Sanchez also said.

The NPA said the militia is only temporarily under custody and would be released as soon as government troops pull out from areas where rebel forces are actively operating in the province.

The NPA has been waging a decades-long protracted armed struggle for the establishment of a Maoist state in the country. –AL JACINTO correspondent, Manila TImes