But I am concerned about the information the AFP gave to Alston. It doesn’t give me comfort to hear him being briefed by the perpetrators of indiscriminate arrests, torture, killings and massacre of Moro civilians. To Arroyo, the military, the police and even some courts treat all those who were killed in Mindanao, especially in areas with the presence of Abu Sayyaf, as terrorists, despite the pleas to the contrary by their relatives.
I wonder how the AFP presented the case of Almujayal Padiwan, the seven-year old Tausug kid I interviewed back in year 2005. He had ran away from the hospital in downtown Jolo after the Marines threatened him that he would be killed — just like his parents and older brother who were killed in Kapuk Punggul, Maimbong, in Sulu on Feb. 1, 2005. The Southern Command had labeled the boy and all the members of his family as members of Abu Sayyaf.
I wonder how the military will answer the question of the families of the Moro inmates massacred in Camp Bagong Diwa on March 15, 2005? Two years after the incident, and a year after the Commission on Human Rights released their report on the culpability of then DILG chief General Angelo Reyes as well as then PNP chief Arturo Lomibao for the carnage, they still face no charges.
In Davao, Alston was asked why was it easy for this administration and the military to arrest Moros even without warrants and file cases of terrorism against us even without substantial evidence?
On the other hand, a government agency has already pinpointed the military and the police as culpable of staging a massacre, violating the rights of inmates who were not involved in the violence and who should not have been imprisoned there in the first place. Still, these officials were promoted and praised by Arroyo for a job well done.
Extrajudicial Killings, Terrorism
