MAMASAPANO, Maguindanao, Philippines – “It’s tragic.”
This was how Commission on Human Rights Chair Etta Rosales described the site of the bloody fighting between the police’s Special Action Force commandos and combined forces of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front and Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters that left 44 policemen dead on Jan. 25.
“It’s tragic because these are the farmlands of locals. This is where they are getting their livelihood,” Rosales told reporters after she was briefed by town mayor Benzar Ampatuan at the cornfields, the location where the bodies of the police commandos were recovered.
“When two elephants fight, it is the grass that suffers. Whenever there are armed confrontations, it’s the civilians who are affected,” she said.
“If we cannot reach those unfortunate people and fight for their rights in their homes, jobs, schools and even in their small community that is out of the map, our efforts towards promoting human rights are useless,” she explained.
She said that because of the bloodbath, parents have ceased sending their children to school for fear of their safety.
“I hope we will all make a promise. It’s enough. We hope the firing of guns will totally stop here. We need to show to the public that we can stop the fighting,” she added.
Rosales said the CHR would return to this town to conduct investigate the clash and its impact on the community further and promote human rights in the town’s 14 barangays (villages).
She also appealed to the MILF leadership to continue engaging in the peace negotiations with the government.
“We need to consider the interest of the entire people in Mindanao. Our family, children and their future,” she said.
Rosales said she talked with leaders of the MILF recently and she was impressed by their sincerity in the negotiation.
“They are also Filipinos. Some of us don’t fully understand them why they are (doing this), but it’s because of poverty for so many years,” she said.