Asian group hails KAUGOP-Leyte's role vs. enforced disappearances

TACLOBAN CITY, Philippines — The KAUGOP-Leyte, a multi-sector quick reaction team (MSQRT) created to help address extra-legal killings (ELKs) and enforced disappearances (EDs), and to seek justice to all victims, has celebrated its 1st anniversary last April 29 with simple ceremonies at the An Waray Center for Youth Development at the Leyte Sports Center in the city.

Mary Aileen Bacalso, secretary-general of the Asian Federation Against Involuntary Disappearance who was the keynote speaker, hailed KAUGOP-Leyte as a vital organization in the fight against human rights violations in this part of the country and in pushing for laws criminalizing enforced or involuntary disappearances.

"Your first year as an organization was a period of laying down a strong foundation to gain further strength to brace more future challenges. The political situation may have changed, but for as long as the roots of human rights violations are not addressed and while perpetrators continue to enjoy impunity, your existence will be needed," Bacalso told KAUGOP-Leyte members and officers.

The International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance, considers EDs as the " arrest, detention, abduction or any other form of deprivation of liberty by agents of the State or by persons or groups of persons acting with the authorization , support or acquiescence of the State, followed by a refusal to acknowledge the deprivation of liberty or by concealment of the fate or whereabouts of the disappeared person, which place such person outside the protection of the law."

KAUGOP-Leyte was organized a year ago with the staunch support from erstwhile Archbishop Most Rev. Jose S. Palma of the Archdiocese of Palo, to help in the advocacy against ELKs and EDs, and to bring justice to the victims' families and eradicate the culture of recrimination with impunity.

There were partner-institutions and organizations that signed the memorandum of understanding leading to its creation, and they were among those who were invited to the anniversary fete, which was also held as a general assembly renewing their commitment to the mission.

Reverend Fr. Isagani Petilos, head of the secretariat for KAUGOP-Leyte and executive director of the Pastoral Action Secretariat of the Archdiocese of Palo said: "This is an occasion among MSQRT partners to look back in thanksgiving and gratitude for the different programs and activities we have done in 2010 and to commend especially our partners for the unrelenting support to our mission and advocacy."

The affair started with a Eucharistic Celebration, with a special intention for the victims of ELKs and EDs, officiated by Rev. Msgr. Jaime Villanueva, archdiocesan administrator of the Archdiocese of Palo.

As of September last year, a total of 2, 134 cases of EDs has been reported nationwide. Majority of these was during the regime of Marcos, and most victims come from the marginal sectors of farmers, workers and the youth.

A bill, yet pending both in the House and in the Senate, seeks to criminalize EDs adopting the United Nations' definition, provide preventive suspension or summary dismissal of perpetrators and other violators, mandate expeditious disposition of habeas corpus, amparo and habeas data proceedings, and impose penal sanctions.

KAUGOP-Leyte cited the urgency of the enactment of the Anti-Enforced or Involuntary Disappearance Law contending that the offense is so grave as harm inflicted to the victim and the family "is incalculable and excruciating, and the anxiety over the uncertain fate of the missing person is unfathomable."