DAVAO CITY – A human rights group has declined to provide a resource speaker for the human rights training of the Army in Agusan del Sur.
In an email sent to the members of the press, Karapatan’s Public Information team said that on August 24, Col. Alexander Macario of the 401st Infantry Brigade of the Army’s 4th Infantry Division wrote a letter to Karapatan inviting a “lecturer” for their training.
The training was reportedly in coordination with the Commission on Human Rights Region 13 office.
In a reply to Col. Macario, Karapatan secretary general Cristina Palabay said that they are declining the invitation because they “refuse to participate in your (Army’s) charades of “human rights training” or similar futile exercises meant to waste public funds, either from the Philippines or from other States, over activities that will redound to nothing but more human rights abuses on the marginalized sectors in your respective area of responsibility and elsewhere in the country.”
Palabay said in the letter that millions of aid have been spent to train the security forces on human rights
“Yet, there has been no great departure from the policy and practice of political repression that the Philippine government has employed against the Filipino people through the Armed Forces of the Philippines – from the Martial Law period up to the present BS Aquino regime,” said Palabay.
“In fact, a week before your invitation was sent, on August 18, 2015, your fellow mercenaries from the 1st Special Forces Battalion under the 4th Infantry Division massacred five Manobo farmers in Pangantucan, Bukidnon. Your fellow soldiers accused them as NPA members during military operations in their community and brutally killed them,” she said.
“Herminio Samia’s body was found near a coffee tree, shot at the stomach, his intestines exposed and has an exit wound at the back. Emer Somina’s body was found near the house’s door. Norman Samia was found a few steps away, with his ear removed from his head and his jaw broken. Welmer Somina’s left hand was cut off from his wrist and had a gunshot on his nose, which disfigured his face. Jobert Samia’s body was found near Welmer’s,” said Palabay citing the case of the five civilians who were killed in Bukidnon.
The Army in its previous statement said the five were members of the New People’s Army who fired at their troops while they were conducting patrols.
“We do not find your charades amusing nor will we be fooled by your failed attempts to appear respectful of human rights through such trainings, because of the policy of political repression by this administration and the fascist character of your mercenary institution called the AFP,” Palabay said in their strongly-worded letter.
Palabay also said that a day after the Army’s human rights training “443 individuals from 81 families, including women and children, evacuated from Nalindog, Nahikyad, Bishop and Tambunon communities in Brgy. Bolhoon, San Miguel, Surigao del Sur due to harassment and threats to the community of paramilitary groups under the 4th Infantry Division.”
“The Aquino administration touts activities like these as among the components of its “security sector reform” under Oplan Bayanihan,” Palabay said.
“But it begs the question: Can such reform change the fascist character and orientation of the Philippine military, when it pursues the same objective of suppressing people’s actions for meaningful change? Clearly, the answer to the said question is no, since the implementation of these so-called “reforms,” the human rights situation in the country has gone from bad to worse,” she said.(davaotoday.com)
