Human rights advocates and activists picket the DOJ to protest continued abuses, including massacres and extrajudicial killings. (photo courtesy of Bayan Metro Manila)
Human rights advocates and activists blasted the Aquino administration for drumming up the presidential bid of Interior Secretary Manuel Roxas II while ignoring a spike in abuses that have so far claimed nine lives in separate massacres in Masbate and Bukidnon this month alone.
In sum, said Karapatan secretary general Cristina Palabay, 46 persons, seven of them minors, have died in 13 massacres blamed on security forces since President Benigno Aquino III came to power in 2010.
Karapatan and organizations allied with the Bagong Alyansang Makabayan staged a rally at the Department of Justice on Thursday to protest what they called the worsening human rights situation in the country. They also picketed the Manila regional trial court demanding the release of political prisoners.
"Just this month, there have been two documented cases of massacre, in Masbate and Bukidnon, with nine civilians dead, two of whom were children. All were tagged as New People’s Army members and supporters," Palabay said.
"But, instead of going after the army killers, Aquino is busy campaigning with Mar Roxas and the Liberal Party," she added.
Karapatan said the Inter-agency Task Force led by the DOJ, which is tasked to investigate extrajudicial killings, has nothing to show in terms of the effective and immediate prosecution of soldiers and military officials responsible for human rights violations.
“We call on Justice Secretary Leila de Lima to extricate herself from these early election campaign activities of the Liberal Party and heed the cries for justice of the victims and their families,” Palabay said.
De Lima, who is reportedly being eyed for inclusion in the administration’s senatorial slate, was with Aquino and Roxas at a sortie in Cebu City early this week.
On August 3 in Masbate, three habal-habal (motorcycles for hire) drivers and a nephew of a barangay captain of Del Carmen town were asked to help soldiers wounded in an NPA ambush.
"Instead of showing gratitude, members of the 9th Infantry Division and 96th Division Reconnaissance Company took the lives of” Adam Fajardo, Joebert Badillo, Gary Vistar and Rogelio Abelid, Palabay said.
The military claimed the dead were rebels slain in the encounter.
On August 19, residents of Sitio Mandum, Barangay Mendis, Pangantucan, Bukidnon, including barangay councilor Isabero Sulda, found five bodies at the Samia residence surrounded by 22 soldiers of the 1st Special Forces Battalion.
The residents’ faces were photographed and their names listed down as they were ordered not to look at the soldiers' faces. They were then told to carry the bodies.
The victims were Herminio Samia, 70, who was blind; his son Jobert and grandson Norman, 13; and his nephews Emer, 17, and Welmer Somina.
A 15-year-old eyewitness who escaped the massacre said that after the soldiers arrived, they shouted: “Kayong mga NPA na nandyan sa itaas ng bahay, lumabas kayo diyan at bumaba ditto You NPAs inside the house, get out and get down)!”
The victims were then shot as they emerged from the house.
The witness managed to run and hide behind big boulders. He then told his father what happened but a few days later, he could no longer speak.
"The soldiers are still at the barangay hall and daycare center up to now,” Palabay said. "The soldiers even had the audacity to stay in the community where they killed its residents like they were proud of what they did!"
Aside from the massacres, extrajudicial murders have also continued unabated with Karapatan tallying 33 killings in the first half of the year, 11 of these this month alone.
Among the most recent victims were Teodoro “Ka Tudoy” Escanilla, Karapatan Sorsogon spokesperson, who was killed on August 20 allegedly by elements of the Army’s 31st Infantry Battalion, and Joel Gulmatico, acting chairman of the Arakan Progressive Peasant Organization, or APPO, who was shot dead two days earlier near the detachment of the Army's 57th Infantry Battalion in Barangay Naje, Arakan, North Cotabato.
According to Karapatan, in February, a Sergeant Rene Enteria of the 31st IB supposedly arrested, tortured and then offered a resident of the same barangay where Escanilla lived P50, 000 and a caliber .45 pistol to kill the activist.
The person, whose name was withheld to protect him from retaliation, immediately reported this and other human rights violations committed by the Army unit to Karapatan-Sorsogon.
http://www.interaksyon.com/article/116702/activists-blast-govt-focus-on-2016-amid-spike-in-killings-rights-abuses
Continuation of the longstanding commie assault on the human rights record of the Philippine military and the Aquino administration. KARAPATAN is the main Communist Party of the Philippines umbrella human rights front organization. BAYAN is the main CPP-associated umbrella multisectoral front group.
ReplyDeleteThe proclivity for these CPP fronts to just manufacture human rights incidents/statistics is evident in their assertions contained in the above article. Legitimate encounters in which NPA rebels are killed are call "massacres" where the rebel dead are characterized as innocent civilians,
Unfounded and uncorroborated allegations regarding.military HR violations are routinely made in press releases and interviews with the local media. Yet the statistics put out by KARAPATAN and other CPP fronts are rarely if ever challenged by media representatives.