Anti-Red groups to CHR: Bring PH case vs CPP-NPA to UN rights body

Member parents of Liga Independencia Pilipinas and the League of Parents of the Philippines hold a protest action in front of the Dutch Embassy in Makati. CONTRIBUTED PHOTO

MANILA, Philippines — Two anti-communist groups on Friday called on the Commission on Human Rights (CHR) to condemn the violence allegedly perpetrated by the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) and its armed wing New People’s Army (NPA) and bring the case filed against it before the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC).

In a statement, Liga Independencia Pilipinas (LIPI) Secretary-General Jose Antonio Goitia said his group and the League of Parents of the Philippines (LPP) urged the CHR to investigate “atrocities perpetrated by the CPP-NPA-NDF with all seriousness and urgency,” after which, bring the case before the UN Commission on Human Rights (UNCHR)

Goitia, in his statement, said the Armed Forces of the Philippines submitted a total of 1,506 cases against CPP from 2010 to 2020.

The list of cases includes 532 incidents of destruction of civilian assets, the killing of 77 soldiers and 296 civilians, and the recruitment of 464 child combatants, he further noted.

“It is only through the combined efforts of the government and the public that we will be able to stop the repeated and dangerous acts of violence committed by this criminal organization,” he said.

The groups also urged the CHR to condemn the CPP-NPA-NDF for “all the atrocities [it] committed” as well as hold its self-exiled founder, Jose Maria Sison, accountable.

The CHR, according to Goitia, “has an obligation to demand the return of Joma Sison from the Dutch government in order that he be held accountable for his crimes in the Philippines.”

Sison is in the Netherlands as a protected political refugee and has not returned to the Philippines since going on self-exile.

Goitia then reminded the CHR of its mandate deriving from the UN’s position on human security. He said the commission’s “principal function consists in investigating all forms of human rights violations involving civil and political rights.“ — Faith Yuen Wei Ragasa, trainee

EDV