Aquino urged to ban state-backed militias

MANILA, Philippines—Human Rights Watch urged President Benigno Aquino on Friday to ban state-backed paramilitary groups, apart from private armies, to preempt violence in the 2013 mid-term elections.

Human Rights Watch said paramilitary forces have a “long and continuing history’’ of serious human rights violations.  It said that paramilitary members were part of the Ampatuan clan’s “private army” implicated in the November 2009 massacre of at least 57 people in Maguindanao.

Alleged abuses by paramilitary forces were rarely investigated or prosecuted, “creating a climate of impunity that encourages further violations,” it said.

“President Aquino’s promise to dismantle ‘private armies’ is a necessary step to end election violence in the Philippines,” Elaine Pearson, deputy Asia director at Human Rights Watch, said in a statement. “But he should go further and disband the state paramilitary forces that are frequently as abusive.”

Aquino announced that the Philippine National Police had “neutralized” 28 private armed groups with the arrest of 106 suspects as of June 2011, and was now after 86 other groups.

Human Rights Watch observed that elections in the country were often marked by violence “mainly carried out by warring political factions with the support of private armies and state-backed paramilitaries.”

It said that the country’s law fails to regulate fully and transparently the recruitment, payment, supervision, training, and structure of paramilitary forces, such as the Civilian Armed Force Geographical Units (CAFGUs), the Special CAFGU Active Auxiliary, Civilian Volunteer Organizations (CVOs), and Police Auxiliary Units.

While campaigning for the presidency in 2010, Aquino promised to revoke Executive Order 546 issued by then president Macapagal-Arroyo in 2006 authorizing the arming of CVOs, and allowing policemen to aid the military in counter-insurgency operations, Human Rights Watch said.

Under this order, barangay tanods or community law enforcement officers, could be used a force multipliers under police control.

But in November 2010, Justice Secretary Leila de Lima said Aquino was still studying the proposal to scrap EO 546. Aquino himself said he was not in favor of dismantling the CAFGUs and other military-supervised paramilitary groups, saying this was not the solution to the problem.

Paramilitary groups are often deployed against communist rebels who have been  waging a Maoist insurgency or the past 43 years.

The government claims that paramilitary forces are now better trained and better regulated than in the past. Defense officials have said that steps were being taken to professionalize the CAFGU units.  But such efforts lacked transparency, Human Rights Watch said.

“Until these groups are fully dismantled, the public should know what paramilitary forces exist; what weapons they are entitled to carry; and when, where, and how they are recruited and trained,’’ it said.

Human Rights Watch also asked the PNP to disclose the full list of private armies and the steps taken to address the government’s involvement in these groups.