UTRECHT — ? The National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) on Friday filed formal complaints before a special body of the United Nations for the enforced disappearance of two NDFP personnel and charged President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo of the Government of the Republic of the Philippines (GRP) and nine of her senior security officials as responsible for the disappearances.
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In Compostela Valley?s villages, a de facto martial law exists. Civilians have been tortured, detained, harassed and killed as the military increases its presence in the resource-rich province in order to protect, according to residents and activists, plantation and mining companies. The deaths of Grecil Buya in March and the killing of two civilians by soldiers last Wednesday were the offshoots of yet another case of ?development aggression.?
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MANILA — The parents of Grecil Buya, the nine-year-old girl killed by the army during a firefight with communist rebels in New Bataan, Compostela Valley, on March 31, filed charges against the military before the Office of the Ombudsman.
Gregorio Galacio and Virginia Buya went to the ombudsman on Friday to file administrative charges against 2nd Lt. Francis John Gabawa and his men in a platoon belonging to the 67th IB who were responsible for Grecil’s death.
The soldiers strafed the victims when they failed to stop at checkpoints but according to the human-rights group Karapatan, the victims had difficulty stopping because, aside from the darkness, there were no signs or signals that a checkpoint was being conducted. The soldiers, Karapatan said, suddenly appeared from the roadside.
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In a resolution on the Philippines, adopted by 68 votes to 0 with 0 abstentions, Parliament draws attention to the number of politically motivated killings in the country, which it says has risen dramatically in recent years, as well as the general human rights situation in the country.
The local human rights organisation Karapatan has recorded 180 forced disappearances and over 800 killings, most of them by unidentified gunmen, since 2001. Most of those killed, such as opposition party members, church people, community leaders, peasants, journalists, lawyers, human rights activists, trade unionists, have been accused by the government of being front organisations for illegal armed groups and ‘terrorists’.
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