Human rights group Karapatan said that this would only lead to more human rights violations in the context of the numerous reported cases of extrajudicial killings especially with the police and military’s repeated use of the ‘nanlaban’ (fought back) narrative, arbitrary arrests and detention, torture and other grave violations.
By ANNE MARXZE D. UMIL
Bulatlat.com
MANILA – Groups expressed their opposition over President Duterte’s proposal to arm anti-crime civilian groups.
Duterte made the proposal during the launch of the Global Coalition of Lingkod Bayan Advocacy Support Groups and Force Multipliers last June 25.
Vice President Leni Robredo said that arming civilian groups is dangerous while the Commission on Human Rights (CHR) said that Philippine National Police (PNP) is “more than enough to fight the crime.”
Human rights group Karapatan said that this would only lead to more human rights violations in the context of the numerous reported cases of extrajudicial killings especially with the police and military’s repeated use of the ‘nanlaban’ (fought back) narrative, arbitrary arrests and detention, torture and other grave violations.
The group added that the regular enlisted personnel of the Philippine National Police (PNP) and the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) are those allegedly responsible for these violations.
“Employing and arming so-called civilian volunteers, mobilized for the government’s sham drug war and war on dissent, will only promote and worsen the climate of impunity in the country,” the group said in a statement.
They added that arming these groups will further weaponize them as paramilitaries, “which have a long bloody history of human rights violations, for the administration’s ‘whole of nation’ approach in both campaigns — a tactic that merely uses the population to subvert civilian authority for militarist and fascist objectives and ends.”
Former Anakpawis Party-list representative and now national president Ariel “Ka Ayik” Casilao meanwhile calls this proposal of Duterte as “insane” and should be opposed.
Casilao said the Filipino people are in a dire condition where their basic rights, rule of law and due process “are already systematically abused by the existing armed forces units.”
He said that what the people need is immediate aid manifested in a survey conducted by Octa Research last March.
A survey on the most urgent national concern that people want the government to address revealed that their most urgent concern is increase in wages followed by access to food then quelling the spread of COVID-19.
Casilao said that this corresponds with the Social Weather Survey last December where 62% of the respondents claim a worsened quality-of-life, the greatest factor of which is the 16% or 4 million families experiencing involuntary hunger.
“The irony is written all over the idea: Duterte wants to provide guns for the Global Coalition of Lingkod Bayan Advocacy Support Group when the PNP is already bloated with thousands of new recruits annually and with the law enforcers themselves getting enmeshed in scandalous crimes, including Tokhang, drugs, and sexual violence,” said Gabriela Women’s Party-list Rep. Arlene Brosas in a statement.
For PAMALAKAYA national chairperson Fernando Hicap, this proposal could intensify election related violence.
“Aside from using it against activists and suspected drug addicts, traditional and warlord politicians might commission these armed groups to attack their political rivals in the 2022 polls,” Hicap said in a statement.
ACT Teachers Rep. France Castro pointed out that what the people need, aside from aid, is for the government to ensure a faster vaccine roll-out and increase testing and tracing capacities to address the worsening health crisis.
She added that there have also been a number of cases of gun abuse perpetrated by uniformed personnel that’s been caught on video. Such is the case of policemen Jonel Nuezca and Hensie Zinampan.
“You cannot solve the crime problem by allowing more guns in our streets. It will only make our streets more dangerous than it already is,” Castro added. 
