From the Mindanao Examiner blog site (Mar 22): UN urged to probe extrajudicial killings in the Philippines
The National Union of Peoples’ Lawyers in the Philippines has appealed to the United Nations to investigate the unabated cases of extrajudicial killings in the country and also urged the world body to compel Manila to respect human rights.
“The growing number of children victims of extra judicial killings in the Philippines is alarming. We appeal to the Special Representative of the UN Secretary General to investigate these cases of extra judicial killing of children and we urge the Philippine government to respect the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child and to comply with its obligation under international human rights law,” said Atty. Ephraim Cortez, assistant Secretary-General for legal services of the National Union of Peoples’ Lawyers (NUPL), in his oral intervention during the general debates of the 25th United Nations Human Rights Council sessions in Geneva, Switzerland recently.
Cortez, who also spoke in the name of the International Association of Democratic Lawyers, was part of the delegation of the Ecumenical Voice for Peace and Human Rights in the Philippines (EcuVoice), a network of human rights defenders and faith-based institutions advocating for peace and human rights issues in the country.
“In the Philippines, under the Aquino administration, 18 children have been victims of extrajudicial killings. The government continues to sow violence and terror through military operations under the counter-insurgency program Oplan Bayanihan, claiming children's lives,” Cortez said as he welcomed the reports of the UN Special Representative of the Secretary General on Children in armed conflicts and on violence against children.
He cited the cases of seven-year old Richard Mancera and ten-year old Michael Mancera and their father who were allegedly killed by soldiers of the 49th Infantry Battalion in their house in Camarines Norte on February 25, 2012.
And also the case of eight-year old Roque Antivo from Compostela Valley province in southern Philippines who was allegedly killed by the 71st Infantry Battalion on April 3, 2013; and the 16-year old Victor Freay, who was reportedly killed by the 39th Infantry Battalion and Task Force KITACO on August 23, 2013. All of the cases, he said, were documented by human rights groups Karapatan and the Children’s Rehabilitation Center.
“In 2012 alone, a total of 13 children were killed. In these documented cases, four of the children were living in militarized communities protesting the entry of mining companies; four were killed because of indiscriminate firing of state security forces forces; two of the victims were tagged as members of the New People's Army; nine of the victims were inside their homes when they were killed. Not one perpetrator involved in the above cases has been arrested, prosecuted and brought to jail,” Cortez said.
The military has previously denied all allegations by Karapatan whom officials claimed is a political front of the communist New People's Army rebels who are fighting for a separate state in the country.
http://www.mindanaoexaminer.net/2014/03/un-urged-to-probe-extrajudicial.html
It is difficult to lend much credence to the HR data provided by KARAPATAN, the CRC or the NUPL. All are Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) front organizations whose primary mission is to discredit the Philippine government and its security forces.
ReplyDeleteSome children may have died as a result of clashes between the NPA and the Philippine military but the responsibility for those deaths should be laid at the feet of Maoist New People's Army (NPA) because it is engaged in a hopeless struggle to seize state power that has put so many young people at risk.
The group is known to recruit child soldiers for use as lookouts and couriers. And the military at times has killed or captured children that the NPA has armed and put in harms way. Furthermore, armed NPA presence in an area puts all civilians at risk, including children because of the possibility of encounters with the Philippine army or police.
If the NPA would simply cease its activities then there would be no clashes between the insurgents and Philippine security forces and children would not be put in harms way. Of course, KARAPATAN, NUPL, and CRC will never concede this point because they tow the CPP propaganda line and are believers in the efficacy of armed revolutionary takeover of the central government in Manila.