ON NOVEMBER 2018, President Duterte issued Memorandum Order 32, ordering the deployment of additional soldiers and policemen in the Bicol region, Samar provinces and Negros Island. The reason for such deployment was allegedly to conduct intensified operations to “suppress and prevent lawless violence” and “acts of terror,” supposedly targeting “individuals or groups suspected of, or responsible for, committing or conspiring to commit acts of lawless violence in the Philippines.” The President further gave the authority to the AFP and the PNP to “undertake all necessary measures” to carry out their mandate, thereby giving them a blanket authority to do what they want in carrying out their operations.
The deployment of additional troops complicated the already worsening human rights situation in the areas. It further militarized an already highly-militarized area, causing fear and panic among the populace. Their fear turned out to be NOT unfounded, since this signaled the implementation of an intensified counter-insurgency operations in the said provinces, and resulted in a series of intensified harassment against peasant organizers, human rights lawyers and workers, activists and other individuals, who are identified with organizations and groups that the government maliciously and baselessly tagged as alleged “communist front organizations.”
In late December 2018, in the guise of an anti-criminality drive, the PNP conducted what they termed as their “one-time big time” operation in Guihulngan City and Sta. Catalina in Negros Oriental. They barged into houses, like thieves, in the middle of the night. In the process, they killed six individuals whom they claimed to have fought back.
A second wave of a similar raid was conducted in March 2019, where the PNP claimed they served search warrants and warrants of arrest in Canlaon City, and the towns of Manjuyod, Sta Catalina, and Mabinay all in Negros Oriental. This time, they killed fourteen whom they again alleged to have fought back, and arrested fifteen others. The PNP reported that those who were killed and arrested were alleged members of the New People’s Army (NPA).
Witnesses and relatives disputed the claims of the PNP as to the circumstances of the killings. The victims were ordinary peasants and were not members of the New People’s Army. They did not fight back. In fact, one of the victims was seen being dragged out of his house bloodied but alive, and was supposed to be brought to the hospital.
The killings definitely speak of the brazen disregard of the sanctity of life in our nation. They testify to the dismal failure of the government to respect and protect human rights and its blatant policy to attack anyone who speaks the truth and helps people strive for justice.
We affirm that “God deplores violence in our homes and streets, rebukes the world’s warring madness, humbles the powerful and lifts the lowly.” (UMC’s Companion Litany to the Social Creed). And citing Jeremiah 22.1-3. (Full version on www.sunstar.com.ph)