A farmer was wounded when a landmine intended for a military truck exploded in Suawan, Marilog District, Davao City at around 9:45 a.m. yesterday.
Ronald Sayad, 28, a resident of sitio Balite, Marilog, was hit in the right elbow when the landmine, allegedly planted by the New People’s Army (NPA) under Leoncio Pitao alias Kumander Parago, exploded.
Sayad was driving his motorcycle ahead of a truck belonging to the 69th Infantry Battalion Bravo Company truck when the rebels detonated the landmine.
Sayad was immediately brought to the Robillo General Hospital in Marilog for treatment.
In an interview with reporters, Sayad said he was traversing the Davao-Bukidnon highway when the military truck tried to overtake him.
He said he wanted to give way and so swerved his motorcycle to the side of the road.
That was when the landmine exploded.
Sayad said he initially thought he had been shot by the military, but his X-ray result showed that a bit of shrapnel, not a bullet, was buried in his arm.
First Lieutenant Vincent Tababa, commander of Bravo Company, said he and five of his men were on their way to the Marilog Barangay Hall to attend a peace dialogue when the incident happened.
No soldier was hurt but the truck sustained minor damage.
Tababa said had they not tried to overtake Sayad’s motorcycle, they would have incurred more damage.
Marahan Police Precinct commander Chief Inspector William Corpuz said based on their initial investigation, three persons were seen fleeing the scene when the incident happened.
Corpuz would not confirm if the perpetrators were under Parago because they are still investigating the incident.
Task Force Davao (TFD) spokesperson Major Patrick Cinco, however, told the Mirror that the group under Parago was behind the incident.
He said the TFD explosive ordinance division team that went to the area found the remains of two improvised landmines: wires, detonator, and a few shrapnel.
This was the second landmine incident in the city in the last two months.
The first was when three soldiers under the 69th IB were injured when the Pulang Bagani Command of the NPA staged a landmine ambush in barangay Dalagdag, Calinan District on August 30.
Cinco condemned the NPA attack because the use of landmine has been banned under the Geneva Convention.
The Army’s 10th Infantry Division (10ID) also strongly condemned the attack.
“These local terrorist clearly do not respect the International Humanitarian Law, not even the provision stipulated under the Ottawa Convention banning the use of these explosives by every civilized nation and all entities whether state or non-state actors,” 10ID commander Major General Reynaldo Mapagu said in a statement.
“This has been the fifth roadside IED attack in Davao City in less than three months and this criminal act was boasted by notorious local terrorist Leoncio Pitao in the past months, stating their emplacements of IEDs fashioned out as ‘landmines’ along roadnets to be exploded anytime,” Mapagu added.
