Group assures monitoring of AFP internal security plan

From the Visayan Daily Star (Jul 20, 2019): Group assures monitoring of AFP internal security plan

The "Bantay Bayanihan sa Kapayapaan" in Negros Oriental has assured that it is constantly monitoring activities of the Armed Forces of the Philippines in the province as an oversight body of the Internal Peace and Security Plan (IPSP) implementation of the military.

Marietta Jambora, its lead convenor, assured on Wednesday afternoon that since the creation of the group about 10 years ago, it has not received any report or complaint of human rights abuses by Philippine Army troops deployed in Negros Oriental.

Bantay Bayanihan-Negros Oriental is a third-party oversight group recognized by the military and is composed of sectoral leaders from different churches, farmers and fisherfolk groups, indigenous peoples, advocacies for women and child abuses, and persons with disabilities, among others, Jambora said.

The role/mandate of the Bantay Bayanihan is more of an oversight function to check and monitor that there are “no violations of human rights IHL (international humanitarian law), and the rule of law by the military here”, Jambora said.

“We need to monitor these as abuses like these will destroy the image of the military,” she said.

The Army units now assigned in Negros Oriental include the 302nd Infantry Brigade, the 11th Infantry Battalion, the 94th Infantry Battalion and the 3rd CMO Battalion.

Now that there are more government security forces in Negros Oriental, they are back to their mandate of monitoring them and working closely with them, Jambora said.

For a while, after the 302nd Brigade transferred its headquarters to Bohol, and the 11th Infantry Battalion was pulled out from Negros Oriental, the Army units here decreased in a few years.

But in June this year, more troops were re-deployed to Negros to end the communist insurgency, as directed by President Rodrigo Duterte.

For the past years, there was no battalion or brigade based in Negros Oriental and also less activities of the Army to monitor.

Jambora said a Center for Sectoral Bayanihan was created outside of the formal Bantay Bayanihan oversight group to continue the bond among the sectoral representatives.

Jambora said that last July 6, a roundtable discussion was held between Bantay Bayanihan-Negros Oriental and representatives from the Army units in the province to review the body's manifesto; how to ensure that it remains neutral and critical to the AFP especially in the monitoring of the HR, IHL, and rule of law mandate of the military; and how it can help assist in the return to civilian life and reconciliation process of former rebels who have surrendered.

http://www.visayandailystar.com/2019/July/20/topstory12.htm