CHR to probe Samar killings

MANILA, Philippines - The Commission on Human Rights (CHR) is stepping into numerous unsolved extra-legal killings in Samar, whose recent victims included a peasant activist, a parish priest, and a brother of Gov. Raul Daza.

CHR chief Leila de Lima said they would conduct a full-blown public inquiry into the killings, as they hope to uncover “the root causes of such a prevailing climate of lawlessness and culture of impunity” in the Eastern Visayas province.

“In the midst of continuing efforts to combat extra-legal killings and other crimes of impunity, our nation finds yet another front festered with atrocities,” De Lima said.

Based on the CHR’s initial investigation, there have been 56 murders in the province since 2007, many of them “veiled in mystery and remain unsolved” and were “suspicious (in) character.”   – Katherine Adraneda