Most human rights plaints filed vs rebels, civilians

By Jennifer P. Rendon 

The Communist Party of the Philippines-New People’s Army (CPP-NPA) and civilians accounted for the most number of human rights violation complaints in Western Visayas last year.

Records from the Commission on Human Rights (CHR)-Region 6 indicated that the rebel group and civilians have overtaken the Philippine National Police (PNP) and the Philippine Army in the number of complaints for alleged human rights violations from January to December 2022.

CHR reported receiving 12 complaints against civilians and 10 against the CPP-NPA.

But CHR-6 noted that more than half of those accused of human rights violations remain unidentified at 74.

Eight PNP personnel were accused of human rights violations while four were Philippine Army members; two were minors, and one each against a distillery plant, a teacher, a barangay Captain, and an Indigenous People’s community member.

Atty. Jonnie Dabuco, CHR-6 regional director, said they also received 44 separate complaints against alleged CPP-NPA members.

“However, we have lumped it into another category because the complainants did not directly come into us,” he said.

The cases were referred by the Armed Forces of the Philippines and the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC).

With civilians as the top suspects, most victims are also civilians at 79.

The other victims include nine civil society organization (CSO) members; nine women; eight minors/women; five farmers; four minors; three teachers; two persons with disabilities (PWDs): and two PNP members.

Other victims include a student, an elderly, a foreign national, a broadcaster/media member; a business firm, a Philippine Army member, a member of the Citizen Armed Force Geographical Unit (CAFGU), an IP member, and a former rebel.

The victims in the complaints referred by the NTF-ELCAC were not categorized.

On the nature of complaints, murder is still the top human rights violation with non-drug related extra-judicial killing (EJK) numbering 22.

Eight cases were rape in relation to Republic Act 7610 (Special Protection of Children Against Abuse, Exploitation and Discrimination Act); six drug-related EJKs; five each for illegal arrest during buy-bust operations and International Humanitarian Law (IHL) violations; three each for rape with homicide, RA 7610, and physical injuries; two each for illegal arrest, obstruction of justice, harassment, and alleged abduction; and one each for red tagging and environmental hazard.

Majority of these alleged violations happened in Negros Occidental while Iloilo accounted for 37. Capiz has 11 followed by Antique (6), Aklan (4) and Guimaras (1).

Dabuco said most of the cases are dismissed if they did not find grounds to elevate them to the Office of the Ombudsman and Prosecutor’s Office.

There were also instances where cases were already filed before the complainant sought help from the CHR.