On September 13, Task Force Usig filed charges against a former police officer in the 2004 killing of human rights activist Jacinto Manahan. At year’s end, the case was still under preliminary investigation by the local prosecutor and the suspect had not been arrested.
In recent years, there have been deaths as a result of military hazing. There were no developments in the 2004 case of a PNP cadet who died allegedly from maltreatment during training. On February 3, the Sandiganbayan (antigraft court) dismissed criminal charges against five officials of the Philippine Merchant Marine Academy who were accused as accomplices in the 2001 death of a freshman cadet as a result of hazing.
Government forces killed a number of civilians during clashes with antigovernment forces and with the terrorist Abu Sayyaf Group (ASG) and the NPA (see section 1.g.).
The terrorist group ASG and the Rajah Solaiman Movement (RSM) continued to kill civilians in bombings throughout the year (see section 1.g.). In March ASG terrorists bombed a convenience store in Jolo City, killing five civilians and wounding 25 others. Authorities suspected the ASG of bombings in Mindanao during August 2005 that injured dozens of civilians. An Indonesian ranking member of the terrorist group Jemaah Islamiyah, an operative of the RSM, and an ASG member were sentenced to death in October 2005 for the 2005 Valentine’s Day bombing in Manila, which killed four people. Indonesian authorities arrested an Al-Qaeda-linked suspect in two simultaneous February 2005 Mindanao bombings.
At year’s end, the trial of five alleged Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) members for the 2003 Davao airport and seaport bombing was underway.
Communist insurgents, mainly from the NPA, continued to kill political figures, military and police officers, and civilians, including suspected military and police informers. On June 13, NPA rebels killed nine soldiers of the 50th Infantry Battalion and injured three others during an ambush in Ilocos Sur. In 2004 authorities arrested and charged 15 suspected NPA members for the killing of the police chief of Angat, Bulacan. There have been no known developments in the case since the arrests.
Vigilante groups are suspected of conducting summary killings of suspected criminals in two major cities and local officials appeared to condone and even encourage them. Through December, Kabataan Consortium, a group of human rights NGOs, documented 76 apparent vigilante killings in Davao City, Mindanao. In Cebu City in the Central Visayan Region, more than 70 persons were killed through December. The cities of Toledo and Carcar on Cebu island also saw apparent illegal killings. Most of the victims were suspected of involvement in criminal activities, and the killings appeared to have popular support. The authorities made no arrests in these cases. A court dismissed two cases filed in 2004 in Davao because the victims’ relatives withdrew their complaints. In June 2005 the Office of the Ombudsman suspended four police officers in Davao for failing to solve extrajudicial killings in their jurisdiction; however, in July 2005 the court of appeals reinstated them.
b. Disappearance
According to local human rights NGOs, government forces were responsible for disappearances. Through December the domestic NGO Families of Victims of Involuntary Disappearances (FIND) documented 72 victims of involuntary disappearance: 31 were found alive, four were found dead, and 37 remained missing; FIND suspected government forces in 33 cases, while unidentified armed men were suspected in the remaining 14 cases. Task Force “Usig” documented six cases of forced disappearance of activists since 2001. Only one case has been filed in court, but no arrests had been made at year’s end.
On May 22, five supporters of former president Joseph Estrada were surreptitiously taken into custody, suspected of plotting rebellion. Initially, the government denied any involvement in their disappearance, but on May 24 authorities admitted holding them and released them on May 27.
Extrajudicial Killings, Terrorism
