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Monday, May 16, 2005
Speak out: Good riddance
By DENNIS ABARRIENTOS
Karapatan-Central Visayas
THE pullout from Cebu of the notorious military outfit 78th Infantry Battalion (IB) is long overdue.
This has been the demand of a petition-letter signed by over 500 residents in four barrios of Tuburan, Danao and Asturias, which have been gravely terrorized by the 78th IB since 2002. The demand was an offshoot of the long list of grave abuses committed by this dreaded battalion against the hapless civilians during their counterinsurgency operations in mountain barangays of mid-northern Cebu.
Among these cases were the murders of farmers Rizza Concha, Maria Bataluna, Agustin Abile and Noel Batiquin. The butcher battalion, as it is more notoriously known among the peasants, was also involved in the dastardly acts of abduction and gruesome torture of peasant leaders Nestor Lumbab and Jose Suplaag.
These abuses along with other cases of harassment against peasant masses and activists have been duly filed in various government agencies including offices of the ombudsman and the Commission on Human Rights. Victims and their families have elevated their complaints before the joint monitoring committee of the government and the National Democratic Front for violation of the human rights accord of the two belligerent forces.
The steadfast resolve of the abused people to seek justice has already been rewarded with the expulsion of the butcher battalion’s former commander, Lt. Col. Jonas Sumagaysay, to Camp Aguinaldo. It is only right that the entire unit be kicked out too as the next step for restitution for the victims.
The 78th IB, like other barbaric units of the Armed Forces of the Philippines, has no place in a society we like to believe is founded in democracy, justice and peace.
(May 16, 2005 issue)
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