AFP urges HRW to look into rebel breaches

From the Daily Tribune (Jul 6): AFP urges HRW to look into rebel breaches

Stung by a petition of US and Philippine rights groups to the United States Senate seeking the restriction of US foreign aid to the Aquino administration as a result of its poor record in protecting human rights, the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) yesterday told the petitioning groups, particularly the New York City-based Human Rights Watch (HRW), to seek a stop instead to the foreign funding of the communist New People’s Army and also look at the NPA’s human rights violation.

The NPA, however, is not part of state forces and is even considered a terrorist group based on the Philippines and US government’s labeling.

HRW and other rights groups, including Bagong Alyansang Makabayan-USA, filed a petition before the US Senate calling for the restoration of ban on US military funding to the Philippines due to many unresolved cases of human rights violations under the Aquino administration.

Lt. Col. Harold Cabunoc, AFP-Public Affairs Office chief, said that the rights groups should also check on the human rights violations of the NPA and communist legal fronts.

Cabunoc, at the same time, called on the rights groups to help stop foreign aid being extended to the NPA, the armed wing of the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP).

“I think HRW is looking only at the alleged human rights violations filed by the NPA and their legal fronts,” said Cabunoc.

“We would like them to stop the funds for the NPA coming from foreign and local supporters who are deceived by their sweet-talking propagandists,” he added.

Cabunoc also cited violent incidents perpetrated by the communist rebels, including massacre and bombing.

“They should stop the NPA’s armed violence and the killing and abduction of unarmed personnel. They should be more concerned of the NPA’s Sipalay massacre and Paquibato bombing of innocent children,” Cabunoc said.

According to Cabunoc, the AFP is not tolerating its personnel involved into rights violations.
“We are ready to punish all those who are found guilty of human rights violations among our soldiers,” he said.

The HRW and Bayan-USA cited the spate of unresolved killings blamed on suspected government forces in seeking US Senate’s restoration of the ban on military funding to the Philippines.

The US government lifted the cap on Philippine military funding since 2014 when it released $50 million in military aid. The arrest of the fugitive ex-military official Jovito Palparan Jr. was reportedly a factor in the dramatic fund increase.

This year, the US had pledged to release $40 million as military assistance as a result of the Aquino administration’s drumming up of a maritime spat with China.

The groups wrote that every appropriations bill since 2008 has imposed a restriction on foreign military financing to the Philippines because of its military’s alleged involvement in extrajudicial killings.

“The most recent restriction places limits on assistance to the Philippine Army while allowing assistance to the Navy. These limits can be lifted if the Secretary of State certifies that the Philippine government is achieving sufficient progress on addressing extra judicial killings,” the letter said.

“Outside of the context of counterinsurgency, security force personnel have also been responsible for killings of politicians and political workers involved in local disputes and journalists reporting on corruption and other criminality,” according to the groups.

Among the signatories of the letter were representatives of the Columban Center for Advocacy and Outreach, Missionary Society of St. Columban (Catholic Church); National Alliance for Filipino Concerns; Human Rights Watch; St. Margaret of Scotland Episcopal Church, Chicago, IL; New York Committee for Human Rights in the Philippines; Peace with Justice Program, United Methodist General Board of Church and Society and the International Labor Rights Forum.

The petitioners also cited the US State Department’s report on the human rights situation in the country.

“The State Department’s most recent Human Rights Country Report on the Philippines highlighted this continuing human rights challenge, noting that the Philippines “most significant human rights problems continued to be extrajudicial killings and enforced disappearances undertaken by security forces and suspected vigilante groups.”

It cited the case of activist and human rights defender William Bugatti, who was shot and killed on March 25, 2014 in Ifugao province, allegedly by soldiers from the Philippine Army’s 86th Infantry Battalion, 5th Infantry Division.

“Although the Philippine Department of Justice has taken action in some cases, the government’s overall record in investigating and prosecuting serious human rights violations by the security forces has been extremely disappointing,” the groups said.

According to police records, since 2001 there have been only two convictions in extrajudicial killings, and no senior officials have been among those convicted, only the gunmen.

“Lifting the restrictions is also strategically unnecessary: the current, well-tailored restriction focuses entirely on the Philippine Army, while the bulk of assistance requested by the Pentagon would be directed at the Philippine Navy,” it added.

http://www.tribune.net.ph/headlines/afp-urges-hrw-to-look-into-rebel-breaches