CHR Confirms Military Atrocities; PNP Top Human Rights Violator

A human rights commissioner has confirmed that government’s counter-insurgency operations in many provinces have resulted in human rights violations.

By Karl G. Ombion and Edmund Sestoso
Cobra-ans/Bulatlat.com

DUMAGUETE CITY – A human rights commissioner has confirmed that government’s counter-insurgency operations in many provinces have resulted in human rights violations.

Dominador Calamba, commissioner of the Commission on Human Rights (CHR), made the admission in a news conference held at the local office of the Philippine Information Agency (PIA) this city Oct. 9.

Calamba’s admission thus confirmed what several human rights groups have reported about the increase in the number of human rights cases arising from counter-insurgency operations. The operations, groups like Karapatan said, have victimized civilians including leaders and activists of people’s organizations.

The commissioner said that many of the cases of military and police abuse involved harassments including the sexual molestation of women.

Calamba, who is with CHR-Central Visayas, also revealed that based on their records the Philippine National Police (PNP) is the No. 1 human rights violator. The PNP has consistently been named by the CHR as top human rights violator for several years now.

The CHR commissioner noted however that the province of Negros Oriental and its capital, Dumaguete City, is “relatively” peaceful and reports about human rights abuse are isolated. He attributed this however to the lack of intensive military operations in the province’s rural countryside.

Calamba’s report about the peace and order situation in Negros Oriental contradicted allegations by independent human rights organizations here. Based on their fact-finding missions, Karapatan and other groups found widespread human rights violations committed by government soldiers and members of the breakaway group, Revolutionary Proletarian Army (RPA).

They also named the RPA as a human rights violator owing to its current role as a militia unit of the Armed Forces.

Meanwhile, lawyer Alejandro Alonso, CHR regional director, said that 69 cases of human rights violations are pending in his office. All the victims are civilians except for one who is a member of the police.

Ten of the cases involved policemen while two others involved Philippine Army soldiers, Alonso added. Bulatlat.com

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