Karapatan: 1,118 victims of unexplained killings under GMA

MANILA, Philippines - A total of 1,118 people have been victims of unexplained killing during the administration of President Arroyo, according to a human rights group.

In its 2009 Report on the Human Rights Situation in the Philippines, Karapatan said its has documented 77 victims of unexplained killing between January and October this year.

The number is more than the 53 cases of unexplained killing it has recorded in the same period last year, Kara-patan added.

Karapatan said “with the addition of 57 victims of the Ampatuan massacre, the 2009 latest EJK total has surpassed those in all years of GMA’s rule except in 2005 and 2006.”

Marie Hilao-Enriquez, Karapatan chair, said added to the 77, the 57 massacre victims will raise to 134 the number of unexplained killings in the country this year.

“(It was) an incident waiting to happen with the continued implementation of the OBL,” she said, referring to the administration’s counter-insurgency program, Oplan Bantay Laya.

“Under the counter-insurgency program, recruitment of paramilitary groups such as the CAFGU, CAA and CVOs were resorted to by this regime.

“These paramilitary groups, under the direct control of the military, are also used to protect Arroyo’s political allies like the Ampatuan clan.”

Enriquez said the OBL had victimized “legal, progressive and unarmed individuals” in a span of five years.

“The OBL is by far the bloodiest and most brutal counter-insurgency campaign unleashed on the Filipino people by any president, for it lumps together the armed revolutionary movement, legal and democratic organizations, media and political opposition as targets to quell the growing dissent against Arroyo’s political and economic policies,” she said.

Karapatan also recorded three cases of enforced disappearance from January to October this year. – Katherine Adraneda, Artemio Dumlao