Manila: Communist New People’s Army rebels issued an apology in connection with a March 2 ambush that resulted in a wounding of several civilians in Davao del Sur.

In a statement, Rigoberto Sanchez, spokesman of the Southern Mindanao Regional Command of the New People’s Army (NPA) “expressed deep regret” for the ambush Provincial Disaster Risk Reduction Management Council ambulance in the village of Managa, Bansalan town.

“We take responsibility for this act as we take cognizance of the fact that the medical staff and mobile medical units should not have been made target of any attack and whose protection and/or safety is guaranteed under the international humanitarian law,” Sanchez said.

Four members of the Provincial Disaster Risk Reduction Management Council (PDRRMC) were injured in the ambush, namely Genaro Dumayas (driver), Bonita dela Cruz (nurse) and civilian emergency health workers Arnel Veloroso and Alberto Cabual.

Reports from both the insurgents and the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) said the ambulance had been sent by the provincial disaster office to pick up and provide immediate medical assistance to soldiers ambushed by the rebels earlier in the same area.

“Operatives tasked to discharge the command detonated explosives failed to distinguish the ambulance from its target, the two military trucks. The ambulance was inconspicuous in as far as it did not discharge its siren” the Sanchez said. He added that the same Army unit used the same civilian rescue workers to recover the military casualties following an en encounter earlier that day at 11am, when insurgents ambushed them in sitio Bagsak, Managa village.

He claimed that the two incidents on March 2 left a total 13 fatalities and 11 wounded soldiers. “Among the casualties were two lieutenants, two corporals and seven private first class soldiers. One Red fighter was wounded,” Sanchez said,

For its part, the AFP said it will file a case against the NPA commander who ordered the ambush.

“We will file cases against Menandro Villanueva, Secretary of the Southern Mindanao Revolutionary Command of the NPA, as well his cohorts in the local and national courts for frustrated murder and for violating the provisions of the Comprehensive Agreement on Respect for Human Rights and International Humanitarian Law (CARHRIHL) specifically Part IV, Article 4.4, which states that civilians shall be treated as such, shall be distinguished from combatants, shall not be the object of attack and they shall be protected against the use of explosives such as landmines,” Colonel Marcos Norman Flores Jr., 1002nd Infantry Brigade commander, said.

The military officials said the rebels will face charges under the Republic Act 9851 or the Philippine Act on Crimes against International Humanitarian Law, Genocide and other crimes against humanity.

Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte said the use by rebels of landmines is “disturbing.”

He was quoted as saying in reports that he had wanted to long ago to discuss with the rebels this issue.

The March 2 incident was not the first time that civilians were killed or injured in the NPA’s conduct of the more than four-decades-old insurgency.