A witness takes oath to tell the truth during the public hearing conducted by the House Committee on Human Rights in August. Victims and witnesses from the Mindanao regions presented their accounts on the human rights abuses allegedly committed by the government troops. Rep. Lorenzo Tanada III, chairperson and Rep. Satur Ocampo, House Deputy Minority Leader, were present at the hearing. (davaotoday.com photo by Barry Ohaylan)
The best deterrent to crime is when the wheels of justice, no matter how slow, really move and convict people who are guilty. This is the statement made by Lorenzo Erin Taada IIII, chair of the House of Representatives’ committee on human rights, after a two-day hearing for the Mindanao regions of the ongoing Congressional inquiry on extrajudicial killings.
Sitio Valma of Barangay Ngan in the municipality of Compostela used to be a thriving logging community in the 1970s up to the 1990s. When the company’s timber logging agreement (TLA) expired, Consuelo Valderrama, its owner, chose not to renew the contract, signalling the death of the boom town.
He could hear the sound of his footsteps as he ran to escape his captors. His heart beat very fast. He went to their underground house, where they used to hold secret meetings against the Marcos government, to warn other activists to abandon the place. But men in uniforms captured him instead. “It was just like in the movies,” recalls Bienvenido Lumbera, the National Artist for Literature, who was once a Martial Law survivor.
According to Karapatan, human-rights violations in Southern Mindanao have increased as Oplan Bantay Laya, aimed at crushing the communist rebellion, is nearing its deadline in 2010. Click here for more pictures
Funded by the United Nations children’s fund (Unicef), the Ibon book delves into the lives of women and children living in areas under the influence of the New People’s Army (NPA) and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), hence, the subject of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) operations.
Ma. Esmeralda Macaspac, CRC executive director, said the statements made by Colonel Marlou Salazar, 601st brigade commander, were “irresponsible and cowardly.” She pointed out that five of the six children who were killed were below ten years old, slamming the military’s penchant for branding children that they have killed in their operations as “child warriors.”
