AN alliance of human-rights groups on Monday assailed the Army commander, Lt. Gen. Emmanuel Bautista, for saying that the Armed Forces is addressing human-rights violations and that the likes of fugitive retired Army Maj. Gen. Jovito Palparan, tagged as “butcher” by activists, no longer exist in the military. Karapatan, an alliance of individuals, groups and organizations working for the promotion and protection of human rights, said that Bautista’s pronouncement is part of the military’s “amplified psywar and image sanitizer as the Aquino administration through the Armed Forces intensifies its combat operations.” “It’s psywar, not respect for human rights. The disconnect between Bautista’s statement and the reality on the ground is the result of a paradox between respect for human rights and Oplan Bayanihan, the Aquino administration’s version of the United States’s Counterinsurgency Program 2009, which Bautista penned,” said Marie Hilao-Enriquez, Karapatan chairman. Hustisya, another human-rights group, also took a swipe at Bautista saying that if the likes of Palparan no longer exist in the military, “why is it that violations of human rights is still prevalent?”....
Karapatan and Hustisya are both CPP human rights fronts that are relentless in their efforts to discredit the Philippine military.
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