Rights group urges gov’t to act vs torture and extrajudicial killings

DAVAO CITY—With reports coming out that the Special Action Force commandos killed at least seven civilians, including a 5-year-old girl during the Mamasapano raid, Human Rights Watch (HRW) said the government should take “decisive action against torture and extrajudicial killings by the police and other state security forces” in its World Report 2015.

HRW said that although the present administration of President Benigno Aquino III took some “important steps in 2014 to improve rule of law,” its overall record of addressing cases of human rights violations have remained poor, with reports of police officers involved in the torture and abuse of suspects arrested for alleged participation in the hostilities in Zamboanga in September 2013.

The abuses, HRW said, include near suffocation and the stapling of nipples and genitals.

Phelim Kine, HRW deputy Asia director, commented it should be the top priority of the present administration in its remaining years in office to ensure the investigation and prosecution of cops involved in rights abuses.

“The Aquino administration needs to ensure that police responsible for serious abuses are thoroughly investigated and prosecuted. Ending the culture of impunity for police torture should be a top priority for Aquino in his final two years in office,” Kine said.

In the HRW report, the government was recognized for the creation of “justice zones” where “criminal cases, warrants, and subpoenas are filed electronically as a means to accelerate court proceedings that have stranded thousands of suspects in prolonged pretrial detention.”

“The government also achieved a success against impunity with its August 2014 arrest of retired Army Gen. Jovito Palparan, who is implicated in the alleged enforced disappearances of activists in 2006,” HRW said.

However, the international human rights organization noted that these efforts were overshadowed by the government’s failures to provide solutions to other longstanding issues.

HRW said that even though the government passed into law of the Anti-Torture Act of 2009, the courts have not yet convicted any state security forces who tortured suspects under their custody.

The failure to prosecute government and police officers involved in the death squads in Tagum City that killed vigilante-style suspected criminals in the city was also noted by HRW.

“Police officers and public officials have been involved in a ‘death squad’ in Tagum City in the southern Philippines, as Human Rights Watch reported in May 2014. The death squad targeted suspected petty criminals, among them children, and also functioned as a guns-for-hire operation. To date the Philippine government has not yet prosecuted any government or police official implicated in the Tagum killings,” the HRW said.

HRW commented that with the remaining two years of the Aquino administration it continues to “send mixed signals about his commitment to tackling longstanding human rights problems in the Philippines.”

“While the number of cases of extrajudicial killings, torture, and enforced disappearances by state security forces has declined since the previous administration, their regular occurrence is no basis for complacency,” Human Rights Watch said.

Like its previous report, HRW said the government lacks political will to put an end to human rights violations involving state agents in the country.

“The crucial missing ingredient in addressing the Philippines’ human rights problems is a lack of political will. The Aquino administration needs to bring security force personnel implicated in rights violations to justice to send the message that official tolerance for such abuses is at an end,” Kine said.

In the 656-page world report, its 25th edition, Human Rights Watch reviews human rights practices in more than 90 countries. In his introductory essay, executive director Kenneth Roth urged governments to recognize that human rights offered an effective moral guide in turbulent times, and that violating rights could spark or aggravate serious security challenges.

A Moro group, in a post-fact finding mission report, claimed that at least seven civilians were killed while three others were wounded during Sunday’s incident in Mamasapano, Maguindanao.

Jerome Succor Aba, national spokesperson of the Suara Bangsamoro, said residents of Barangay Tukanalipao were preparing for their daily activities when the SAF commandos entered the community and opened fire at the house of the Panangulon family.

As a result, five-year old Sarah Panangulon was killed while her parents, Tots and Samrah, were wounded, Aba said.

A farmer, identified as Badrudin Langalan, was also killed. His body was found hogtied at the wooden bridge in the village.

“His body was riddled with bullets and his eyes were gouged out,” Aba said.

Aba said five other people were killed as they were going out of the mosque in Sitio Inugog. He said based on the stories of villagers, it was the SAF who killed them.

“Three civilians were also wounded in the incident,” Aba said.

“Civilians bore the brunt of the botched operations, they were made to suffer on suspicions that they are harboring terrorists. Suara calls for justice and recognition of the true victims and accountability to the police and Aquino administration,” Aba said. Karlos Manlupig