Statement - Cover up

International pressure against the killings of government critics is weighing so heavily upon the current administration that it was forced last Thursday to pull out another card from its sleeve.

In an attempt to impress investigators from the United Nations and the European Union, Press Secretary Ignacio Bunye bragged that upon advice from the president, the Supreme Court is designating special courts ostensibly to hasten the immediate resolution of serial killings of activists.

How would that exactly lead to the desired outcome remain to be seen. Sad to say, our courts have long lost its veneer of independence in dispensing justice in favor of the victims. Like other government bureaucracies, they have been corrupted and entrapped by patronage politics and careerism.

Yet, that is least of the problems. The fact remains many cases of political killings do not reach the courts at all.

To start with, no serious investigation is undertaken by the police, like in the assassination of peasant leaders Nestor Arinque in Bohol, and Ceasar Quimco and Allan Villacensio in Cebu. If ever an investigation is grudgingly done upon pressures from the families, this is toward whitewash, like in the execution of Victor Olayvar, chairperson of BAYAN-Bohol. In the latter case, the police replaced the original cartographic sketches of suspects, who were identified as military agents based in Brgy, Nueva Montaña, Buenavista, with a new set that frames up thieves in Danao, also in Bohol.

Even when formal complaints are filed, the prosecutors drag their feet resulting in the escape of some of the suspects such those in the failed murder try on our staff Emmylou Cruz, and the killing of Gabriela-Bohol organizer Liezalda Cuñado.

If the president really wants to impress the UN investigators, she should make the DILG and DOJ accountable for the cover up of political killings and the bastardization of justice. But she must explain first her own role in tasking these agencies to help the military carry out Oplan Bantay Laya­the blueprint for the termination of government critics. Dennis Abarrientos
Secretary-General
KARAPATAN