Attacks on farming communities worry rights groups

From the Visayan Daily Star (Feb 24, 2024): Attacks on farming communities worry rights groups

Human Rights Advocates Negros (HRAN) raised grave concern over the use of T129 night attack helicopters indiscriminately firing on farming and farmworkers communities in an air strike operations after an alleged running gunbattle between AFP and NPA since February 21, in Sitio Mansulao, Barangay Pinapugasan, Escalante City, a press from HRAN said.

A report dispatched by local human rights defenders from Escalante City said the indiscriminate attacks using helicopters and artillery cannons have resulted in mass evacuations of more than 300 families and declaration of no classes in nine barangays of Escalante City and Toboso.

A video circulating online also shows the newly purchased T129 attack helicopters being used and is confirmed by army officials.

Indiscriminate attacks are strictly prohibited under international law on war, specifically Protocol 1 of the Geneva Conventions, where attacks of these types do not distinguish between combatants and civilians, and if civilians are injured or killed, they are regarded as “collateral damage.”

HRAN will also further investigate the identities of those alleged NPA killed in firefight and other circumstances, saying the AFP is notorious for presenting murdered farmers as NPA.

The government purchased P2.9 billion worth of the night attack help only to be used to murder its people and destroy lives. A waste of money in the midst of drought brought by El Niño phenomenon and lingering crisis in the sugar industry, they added.

It seems that the 3rd Division Philippine Army declaration of stable peace and order is hollow as continuing armed skirmishes in the countryside still occur and the army continue to deploy two brigades against so called “remnants of NPA” in Negros.

HRAN called on human rights advocates to courageously document and monitor cases of human rights violations as Philippine Army intensifies its militarization of Negros Island.*

[Note: Human Rights Advocates Negros (HRAN) is a Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) human rights front group and a member of the main CPP-linked umbrella human rights front organization KARAPATAN. CPP human rights front groups are tasked with undermining the credibility and grass roots support for the Armed Forces of the Philippines]

https://visayandailystar.com/attacks-on-farming-communities-worry-rights-groups/