Amnesty International report: Impunity continues under Gloria

05/28/2010, Philippine Daily Tribune Online

London-based human rights watchdog Amnesty International (AI) recently reiterated similar worldwide findings linking President Arroyo to a culture of impunity under her dawning watch as it claimed in its annual report the widespread and systematic political killings and enforced disappearances of rivals and critics allegedly committed by Philippine security forces.

With this year as a self-imposed govern-ment deadline in thumping a more than three-decade-old communist rebellion, the AI said the military failed to defferentiate between communist New People’s Army (NPA) fighters and above-ground activists and human rights defenders belonging to legal organizations.”

“The military subjected civilians to secret detention, torture and other cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment. Both sides carried out politically motivated killings and enforced disappearances. A culture of impunity continued as almost no perpetrators were brought to justice,” the group’s 2010 report released on Thursday in Manila said.

AI called on the Philippine government to provide protection to people at risk of being targeted, and to initiate prompt, impartial, independent and effective investigations into all killings.

The group lamented that while reported cases of political killings have decreased in the last two years, activists and human rights defenders from left-leaning organizations are still being killed or are continuously disappearing.

The group said it recently received reports of local activists being put under surveillance, summoned for questioning, or subjected to smear campaigns by the military.

AI stressed that effective prosecutions are critical in ending political killings in the country.

However, despite making a commitment during its Universal Periodic Review in 2008 to reduce extrajudicial killings and enforced disappearances, and to bring perpetrators of human rights abuses to justice, the group said “the (Philippined) government has failed to implement institutional reforms necessary to prevent a possible resurgence of political killings.”

“There have been very few prosecutions, and in the few cases which have gone to court, no commanding officer from the security forces has ever been prosecuted,” it said.

Amnesty also noted the poor living conditions of the hundreds of civilians displaced by the intermittent fighting in strife-torn Mindanao.

“ Many lived in tents not suitable for long-term shelter, especially given frequent typhoons and floods. Living conditions were poor, with unclean water, inadequate sanitation and high levels of malnutrition,” it said.

Military efforts to flush out NPA rebels also resulted in the displacement of thousands, including indigenous peoples, from forested lands throughout the country.

AI also cited the November 2009 massacre where more than 100 members of paramilitary groups, together with the private army of a powerful political clan, slaughtered more than 60 people, including 33 journalists and media personnel in Maguindanao province.

AI also denounced acts of torture, which it said continues to be practiced in military facilities and secret detention centres.

Although the UN Committee Against Torture expressed concern about the numerous, ongoing, credible and constant allegations of routine and widespread use of torture, ill-treatment of suspects in police custody continued, especially when authorities try to extract confessions.

The AI said infractions committed by law enforcement and military services personnel were seldom investigated or prosecuted.

Michaela P. del Callar