90 human rights violations noted under Noy’s first year

A total of 90 human rights violations were committed during the one year administration of President Aquino, the Commission on Human Rights (CHR) revealed yesterday.

In an interview after a human rights forum in Camp Aguinaldo, CHR Chairman Etta Rosales said that from the period July 1, 2010 to June 23, 2011, the CHR recorded 90 cases of human rights violations.

Rosales broke down the cases as eight enforced disappearance, 18 torture incidents and 64 extra-judicial killings.

Rosales said they have yet to identify the perpetrators. “I cannot really say it came from the intelligence community…who committed these I am not in the position to say but these were all been submitted to the CHR.”

The CHR chairman noted that there was a total of 381 human rights violations during the nine-year term of former President and now Pampanga Rep. Gloria Arroyo from 2001-2010, mostly attributed to men in uniform and members of the government security agencies.

Rosales particularly noted the 146 torture cases during the time of Arroyo committed in the National Capital Region (NCR), citing specifically the torture video of an arrested holdup man by police officers in Tondo that came out in the media.

At the same time, Rosales welcomed the military’s efforts within its ranks as evidenced by yesterday’s signing of a manifesto by the Armed Forces of the Philippines Office of the Deputy chief of Staff for Intelligence (J2) and the Intelligence Service of the AFP (Isafp) for the promotion of human rights.

Rosales noted that it was the first time the AFP intelligence community signed a manifesto stressing its adherence to the rule of law in conducting its operations.

Also, Rosales admitted that challenge now is how to put the contents of the manifesto into action.

“This is a step forward because this is the first time that this has happened in the history of intelligence here in the Philippines and in the political history of the Filipino…I am looking forward to the bigger effort to try to put this into concrete action,” said Rosales.

For his part, AFP-Deputy Chief of Staff for Intelligence Maj. Gen. Francisco Cruz Jr. cited the AFP’s internal peace security plan (IPSP) “Bayanihan” as proof of the military’s full commitment to the promotion of human rights in all its operations.

He claimed that since the launching of IPSP “Bayanihan” only one human rights violation was attributed to the AFP. –Mario J.Mallari, Daily Tribune