Hontiveros seeks Senate probe on Negros Oriental killings

Senator Risa Hontiveros. INQUIRER.net file photo / CATHY MIRANDA

MANILA, Philippines — Opposition Senator Risa Hontiveros wants the recent spate of killings in Negros Oriental investigated in the Senate to help attain justice for the slain victims.

At least 17 individuals were killed in different towns and cities in Negros Oriental since July 23, Hontiveros noted.

The senator recently filed Senate Resolution No. 47, urging the Senate committees on public order and dangerous drugs and justice to conduct an inquiry regarding the recent spate of killings and the “circumstances allowed for the lawless violence.”

“The killings in the Negros region is an easy and chilling example of the violence against civilians that has flourished under the culture of impunity and lawlessness in the country,” Hontiveros said in the resolution.

The inquiry is aimed to attain justice for the slain victims and create policies that will address the root cause of the conflict in Negros Oriental, she added.

The senator noted how the individuals were killed in broad daylight, within “spitting distance” of police precincts, or in their own home.

“These murderers seem to fear nothing and no one: Completely assured of their impunity, unconcerned by the consequences of the lawless violence they instigated, and indifferent to the anguish they left behind,” the senator said.

On July 27, a former mayor, his cousin as well as a councilor and a village chief were killed in two separate shooting incidents in Negros Oriental.

READ: Former mayor, three others killed in separate Negros Oriental shootings

Five days prior, human rights lawyer Anthony Trinidad was killed in an ambush in Guihulngan City also in Negros Oriental.

READ: Lawyer linked to Reds killed in Negros ambush

Earlier, police said the communist rebel group could be behind the series of killings in the province. /jpv

READ: NPA eyed behind spate of killings in Negros Oriental