DAVAO CITY – International group Human Rights Watch urged the House of Representatives to fast-track investigations on alleged human rights abuses by government forces.
In a statement to the press Wednesday, HRW said congress is only now acting on the 22 resolutions that legislators have filed with its Committee on Human Rights since 2013 that call for investigation of specific allegations of human rights violations by the military and police.
“Years of apathy by the Philippine Congress toward human rights violations by security forces just make it easier for perpetrators of abuses to literally get away with murder,” said Phelim Kine, deputy Asia director at Human Rights Watch.
“The House of Representatives can and should send a powerful message against impunity by making this week’s inquiry in Mindanao an opportunity to jumpstart long-overdue congressional scrutiny of serious human rights abuses,” he said.
Congress is convening on August 13 and 14, 2015 here for an “initial omnibus legislative inquiry” into human rights abuses designed to jumpstart congressional attention to those resolutions.
The outstanding congressional resolutions on alleged human rights abuses by elements of the security forces relate to cases that include killings on:
- July 3, 2012, of Wilhemus Johannes Geertman, a Dutch missionary in Pampanga province;
- August 26, 2013, of anti-mining activists Anting Freay and his 16-year-old son Victor in Davao del Sur;
- December 6, 2013, of tribal leader Pedro Tinga in Compostela Valley province;
- March 15, 2014, of Romeo Capalla, a former political prisoner and fair-trade activist in Panay province; and
- March 26, 2014, of human rights defender William Bugatti in Ifugao province.
“Congress needs to demonstrate that it’s on the side of rule of law and the victims of human rights violations by supporting thorough and transparent investigations into such abuses,” Kine said.
“Congress can show that it’s serious about tackling impunity by fast-tracking investigations into alleged human rights abuses and supporting the congressional inquiry in Davao City,” he said. (davaotoday.com)
