CHR calls for objective probe into Negros killings amid heated rhetoric

MANILA, Philippines — The Commission on Human Rights on Friday stressed the need for an objective investigation into the killings in Negros Oriental as the government and communist rebels point fingers at each other over the deaths of at least 21 people in separate incidents.

It also called on the Philippine National Police to help the commission's investigators look into the string of killings that have claimed the lives of educators, a lawyer and even a child in so short a period.

“In the end, the final determination of the truth behind these cases can be ferreted out through an objective investigation. We then ask the PNP to allow cooperation with CHR investigators on the ground, specifically for requests for cases’ information, so we can both serve justice to the families and loved ones left behind due to these senseless killings,” CHR spokesperson Jacqueline De Guia said.

She said the commission has deployed investigators from its central and regional offices to look into the circumstances of the death. The probers are looking at every motive, particularly at the allegations that the government and the communist rebels are accountable for the executions.

Among those killed last month were four policemen whom the New People's Army has admitted to ambushing in Ayungon town on July 18.

Authorities have alleged the four cops had been tortured and executed. but NPA has denied this.

The incident led to an increase in killings on the island.

De Guia said the deaths are a cause of "grave concern."

"This count adds to the growing number of killings in the country that needs to be resolved and given due justice," she said.

Martial law eyed

President Rodrigo Duterte could place Negros Oriental under martial law to quell lawless violence in the province following the string of killings, Malacañang said Thursday.

Presidential spokesperson Salvador Panelo said the chief executive may “soon” use his emergency powers to address the unrest in the area.

In a speech Thursday, Duterte warned he is about to do “something drastic” in coming days.

“I’m about to do something drastic. It will not sit well with everybody, maybe including you. But it is needed,” he said at the annoversary of the Bureau of Fire Protection.

The president did not elaborate but he made the statement as he talked about the rampant killings on Negros Island, which he blamed to the communist rebels.

The president on Wednesday raised the bounty for the capture of the people who killed the four policemen to P5 million. The government initially offered a P1 million reward and later raised it to P3 million.

In May 2017, Duterte declared martial law in Mindanao in response to the siege of Marawi City. The declaration was supposed to last only for 60 days, but Congress has three times voted to allow its extension.

National Security Adviser Hermogenes Esperon has indicated that another year of martial law may be necessary, citing the existence of the NPA in parts of Mindanao.

PNP: Situation under control

The declaration of martial law in Negros Oriental was floated as a possibility despite PNP’s assurance that the situation in the area is “under control.”

“We assure the public that the peace and order situation in Negros Oriental is under control and our police units there remain on full alert to prevent occurrence of crimes,” Brig. Gen. Bernard Banac, PNP spokesperson, said Wednesday.

Banac made the statement as he announced the relief of Negros Oriental police chief Col. Raul Tacaca from his post. Tacaca was sacked from his position pending an investigation into the killings under his watch.

CHR said the statement of PNP that the situation in the province is “under control” should put to rest the need to declare martial law.

“What we are trying to avoid is the normalization of measures reserved for extraordinary cases concerning national safety,” CHR’s De Guia said.

‘Peace, not martial law, is what we need’

Defend Negros Movement, a group of Manila-based Negrenses, said that what the residents of the province need are justice and peace, not martial law.

“Heed our appeal: do not use our inconsolable grief to impose yet another brutal state policy that would later on put more lives in peril,” the group said, noting any militarist solution will not solve the situation in the province.

“We say NO to martial law in Negros. We have witnessed what happened in Mindanao after the declaration of martial law in 2017. In the aftermath, we saw Marawi in irreparable ruins and the entire Mindanao island and its people gripped under repressive rule and fear,” Defend Negros Movement said.

It added: “Instead of dangling martial law, the government must address the plight of landless farmers in Negros, long-regarded as the haciental capital of the Philippines, wherein large haciendas and landholdings remain intact and under control of a few landlord families. The government must work to give concrete solutions to the growing economic hardship and social injustice endured by Negrenses.”

87 killed since 2017

According to Defend Negros Movement, among those who were killed in from July 22 to July 28 were:

• Village chairman Sunny Alacala Caldera in Ayungon
• Lawyer Anthony Trinidad in Guihulngan City
• Rebel returnee Wenny Alegre
• Local peasant leader Felimino Janayan
• Rakilin Astorias in Siaton
• Reden Eleuterio in Ayungon
• Arthur Bayawa in Guihulngan City
• Aldane Bayawa in Guihulngan City
• Romeo Alipan in Guihulngan City
• Marlon Ocampo in Sta. Catalina
• One-year-old Marjon Ocampo in Sta. Catalina
• Frederico Sabejon in Siaton
• Former Ayungon Mayor Edsel Gimang Enardecido in Ayungon
• Leo Enardecido in Ayungon
• Coun. Ramon “Bobby” Jalandoni in Canlaon City
• Village chairman Ernesto Posadas in Canalaon City
• Anaciancino Rosalita in Canlaon City

A total of 87 killings have been recorded in the province since 2017, Defend Negros Movement also said.

These include the victims of the Sagay 9 massacre in October 2018 and the 14 individuals, mostly farmers, who were killed in simultaneous police operations in the province last March.

Critics said the killings and political persecution of peasants and activists in the area can be attributed to the “Oplan Sauron,” the implementing program in Negros of Duterte’s Memorandum Order 32.

In November 2018, Duterte issued MO 32, which ordered the deployment of additional police and military forces to Samar, Negros Oriental, Negros Occidental and the Bicol region.

The order is meant to “suppress lawless violence and acts of terror” and “prevent such violence from spreading and escalating elsewhere in the country.”