CHR considers visiting Mamasapano for independent probe

Commission on Human Rights Chairwoman Loretta Ann Rosales. INQUIRER.net FILE PHOTO

MANILA, Philippines—The Commission on Human Rights (CHR) plans to visit the area where the bloody clash of policemen and local armed groups occurred last Sunday.

CHR Chair Etta Rosales said it would be a part of their independent investigation on the possible violations to the International Humanitarian Law (IHL).

Both the Philippine government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) are party to the IHL, which is an internationally recognized set of rules which aims to uphold human rights and limit the effects of armed conflicts.

The MILF is among the groups supposedly involved in the “misencounter” at Mamasapano town, Maguindanao, when Philippine National Police-Special Action Force (PNP-SAF) troopers attempted to arrest terrorists Zulkifli bin Hir (alias Marwan) and Basit Usman.

Rosales told INQUIRER.net, after the necrological services for the 44 SAF members at Camp Bagong Diwa, that they would visit Cotabato on Feb. 3 and 4. There they will meet with the officials of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) and the local human rights office.

“Then we will be looking into the possibility of going to the area itself. Because we will do our own independent investigation, from a human rights lens and from the lens of the international humanitarian law,” she said.

Rosales said they were working with the human rights affairs office of the PNP.

“We all want a report,” she said, adding she had already informed the Office of the Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process (OPAPP) and the peace panels.

Asked what CHR would do if they discover violations of the IHL, she said they would make sure the report would be released to the public.

“We all want the truth,” she said.

Rosales said it was important to reach out to the families, first and foremost.

“The lament of the wife. That was very real. She wants justice. I think all the families want justice and so everybody should support (that),” she explained.

RELATED STORIES

SAF OIC urges colleagues to protect slain comrades’ families, each other

Probe Purisima, US role in SAF mission, solons urge

Speech of Erica Pabalinas, widow of slain SAF member