The chairman of the House Committee on Good Government on Thursday, June 10 condemned the killing of promising footballer Kieth Absalon and his cousin, Nolven Absalon, even as he urged the family and friends of the victims to reject as “grossly insufficient” the offer of apology and remuneration made by the Communist Party of the Philippines.
DIWA Partylist Rep. Michael Edgar Aglipay aired his indignation over the killings even as the Makabayan bloc joined the public outrage over the senseless deaths of the two victims.
“We condemn the military action by a unit of the NPA in Masbate City that caused their death and injuries to others for violating international humanitarian law,” stated the six Makabayan lawmakers who have been linked as allies of the communist movement in the country.
In a statement on Wednesday, the CPP said it is ready to provide the victims’ family “full remuneration for their loss”.
“This is a matter of justice and obligation on the part of the CPP, the NPA and NDFP as signatories to the Geneva Conventions. This process of indemnification will be accomplished in due time,” the CPP said in a statement released to the media by its information officer Marco Valbuena.
Aglipay said the communist group’s sincerity can only be measured by the public if CPP will cause the surrender to government authorities of the New People’s Army members behind the planting of the land mine that killed the Absalon cousins and injured Nolven’s minor son in Masbate City on June 6.
He said “anything less than that is merely a form of damage control on the part of the NPA to salvage any sympathy towards them.” "DIWA Party-list enjoins all law makers across all party-lines to unitedly speak strongly against the crime committed, and demand that the perpetrators surrender to the authorities to face justice,” said Aglipay.
Makabayan solons urged the Absalon family to report the “tragic incident to the Joint Monitoring Committee, the body that accepts complaints on the non-compliance by either the CPP-NPA or the government and the AFP-PNP to provisions of the Comprehensive Agreement on REspedct for Human Rights and INternational Humanitarian Law (CARHRIHL) “We welcome the CPP-NPA statement acknowledging and accepting full responsibility and expressing deep remorse over the Absalons’ deaths. We look forward to a full and impartial investigation into the incident, and to the CPP-NPA’s response to any complaint to be filed against them with the JMC,” the Makabayan members said.