Friday, May 16, 2008 New Army chief stresses respect for human rights
LIEUTENANT General Victor Ibrado, the newly installed commanding general of the 80,000-strong Philippine Army, has vowed to instill to the minds of his officers and men the need to respect human rights amid allegations that Army soldiers are involved in extrajudicial killings.
“Our soldiers shall abide by our standards of discipline and codes of conduct,” said Ibrado, who took over as Army chief last Wednesday in rites held at the Army headquarters in Fort Bonifacio, replacing now Armed Forces Chief Alexander Yano.
“We shall ensure that the Army soldier imbibes and lives by the basic tenets of military discipline for I believe that the best weapon against insurgency is a disciplined soldier,” said Ibrado, the former chief of the AFP Central Command based in Cebu City.
Leftist organizations have continued to blame the military, specifically Army soldiers, as behind the rash of extrajudicial killings of mostly leftist militants. The human rights group Karapatan said over 800 persons died since 2001 but the Philippine National Police (PNP) said there were only about 140 confirmed deaths.
“Respect for and protection of human rights shall be among our dynamic advocacies. We (Army) shall ensure that human rights across the strata of society will be respected and protected at all times,” the new Army chief also said.
“We say that time and again we have to go back top basics because the rudiments of soldiery should be the foundation of every soldier, and as time goes by sometimes people tend to forget their foundations, we emphasize on military discipline,” said Ibrado.
Ibrado said he is putting emphasis on the need to respect human rights adding that there may be soldiers who are not following military policy. He said more seminars may be held so that soldiers will not forget the need to respect human rights.
“There is really a need to remind everybody from time to time, that's what I mean because there are times when they forget it if we do not repeat them. Sometimes some people have their own ideas on how to fight the war, sometimes they make mistakes, what we do is we have to remind people, probably we should have additional seminars again on human rights,” he said. (VR/Sunnex)
