AFP's rights chief vows aggressive probe on complaints

MANILA, Philippines - The new chief of the Armed Forces of the Philippines' (AFP) human rights office on Monday vowed to be more aggressive in probing the allegations of malpractices involving soldiers.

AFRP Human Rights Office chief Col. Rhoderick Parayno said he would not condone any form of human rights violation by military personnel.

“What I will do is to be aggressive in the conduct of investigations, determine who are really behind the (human rights violations),” Parayno told reporters.

“If anyone from the AFP commits a wrongdoing, we will not deny it. We will let the due course of justice to take its course,” he added.

Parayno lamented that soldiers are often the suspects whenever a human rights violation is committed.

He said allegations of human rights violations are being used by some groups to discredit the military.

“There should be no violation so there would be no propaganda,” Parayno said.

Parayno claimed some complaints like the failure of a soldier to support his family are not related to the military’s duties.

The military human rights chief also plans to engage with civil society groups and to continue educating the soldiers about the international humanitarian law.

Commission on Human Rights data show that there have been 66 complaints involving enforced disappearance, 208 complaints involving extrajudicial killings and 141 complaints of torture since 2010.

Meanwhile, AFP spokesman Brig. Gen. Domingo Tutaan Jr. denied that their efforts to promote respect for human rights are just for publicity.

“I don’t know what others say but as I’ve said, it (human rights drive) is not a PR (public relations) initiative. I should know. I was the one designated on the matter so it’s something that we did in our serious business,” Tutaan said.

The Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP), however, believes Tutaan’s appointment as military spokesman was meant to cover up the human rights violations of soldiers.

“Tutaan served only to window-dress the AFP with his rhetoric and publicity gimmicks without any substantial change in the AFP's conduct of its war against the people," the CPP said in a statement.

"Tutaan served as the psy war expert leading the AFP's publicity gimmicks portraying the military as providing social services, thus supplanting local civilian agencies in an effort to cover up the AFP's brutalities,” it added. – Alexis Romero with Bjorn Beltran