Four policemen and 15 civilians wounded in the explosion. File

Manolo B. Jara

Members of the communist New People’s Army (NPA) set off a landmine explosion along the national highway in Eastern Samar province in the Visayas, killing  a polceman and a grandmother barely  a week after President Duterte announced he was  willing to resume peace talks with the insurgents, the military confirmed on Saturday.

Major Joseph Sabas, an Army brigade spokesman, also reported that  19 others — four policemen and 15 civilians, including three children — were wounded in the explosion that occured on Friday afternoon along the highway in a “barangay” (village) in Borongan City, Eastern Samar.

Sabas said the insurgents  set off the landmine planted in a sharp curve along the highway where a police patrol car was passing and followed closely by a tricycle (motorized rickshaw), a van and an ambulance bringing a seriously sick patient to the hospital.

On the other hand, the tricycle was loaded with passengers, including the grandmother and three children, who were returning home afer attending a Christmas party celebration, according to Sabas.

He cited testimonies of survivors who said the rebels , who were  located  in strategic positions,  fired at will at the victims immediately after the explosion and then fled.

In Malacanang Palace, Communications Secretary Martin Andanar condemned  the attack as “reprehensible” even as the Commission on Human Rights (CHR) announced it would investigate the case as “a direct violation of the International humanitarin law.”

“The loss of life and the violence experienced by the victims,” Andanar said, “are reprrehensible. We can only imagine the grief of their loved ones who would spend the Christmas season in good health had it not been for the attacks of terrorists.”

The military  noted that on Nov. 6, at least six soldiers were killed while 20 others were wounded in attack by NPA insurgents also in Borongan City.

The attack likewise  came barely four days after Duterte announced he was willing to resume the on-again, off-again peace talks with the rebels by sending Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello to the Netherlands where he was to discuss the issue with the insurgent leaders leaded by Jose Maria Sison, who are in exile there.

The NPA is the armed component of the Communist Party of the Philippines that has been waging a Maoist-style insurgency against the government for 50 years, considered the longest in Asia and the Pacific.

In 2017, Duterte  announced the suspension of the peace talks with the Maoists which had been hosted by Norway in its capital of Oslo, as the third party facilitator.