Karapatan on Friday said that Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) is lying through its teeth to justify its human rights abuses.
“As attacks of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) intensify against rural communities all over the country, their concoction of make-believe stories and alibis to cover up the rights abuses continue,” Karapatan secretary general Cristina Palabay said in a statement.
According to the human rights group, the 73rd Infantry Battalion-Philippine Army (IBPA) dropped six bombs at Sitio Tangis in Sanrangani and in its nearby areas after a reported encounter between the AFP and the New People’s Army (NPA) last February 11.
The next day, AFP confronted and illegally arrested eight civilians who were all from Kaolo tribe, planting guns in their huts and accusing them of being members of the NPA. Palabay said that the farmers only knew of the trumped up charges against them three days after their arrest, which also makes the case for arbitrary detention.
“Unfortunately, this is the story of many political prisoners in the country, mostly from the peasant sector,” Palabay said.
“There is a long list of military ploys that have caused the endangerment of civilian communities,” she added.
Karapatan cited several claims of AFP, such as having a run-in with the NPA, but a resident who lived across the alleged encounter site in Maddela, Quirino Province attested that there was no such confrontation, and that Gilbert Buyucan, Barangay (village) Captain of Cabua-an was taken hostage by the NPA, but the latter himself denied such allegations.
“In the AFP’s record of rights abuses, including trumped-up cases against leaders and members of progressive organizations, there is no doubt that they have become notoriously prolific in manufacturing fictitious narratives that could rival the storytelling of fiction authors,” Palabay said.
“Their acting may have earned them standing ovations from those who benefit from their fascist attacks, had it not meant injustice … against the people,” she added.
Karapatan earlier claimed that the military involvement in President Rodrigo Duterte’s war on drugs will only worsen the human rights abuses./rga
READ: Military involvement in drug war to worsen rights abuse—Karapatan
And with this, “rights abuses sugarcoated with lies to put the blame somewhere else will continue to be fed to the public,” Palabay said.
“As violations heighten, so will the deceitful excuses to justify the unjustifiable,” she added. RAM