Militants hit committee on extralegal killings

MANILA, Philippines - Militants and human-rights groups assailed yesterday the newly formed Inter-agency Committee on Extralegal Killings, Enforced Disappearance, Torture and other Grave Human Rights Violations.

President Aquino created the inter-agency body via Administrative Order 35 last November.

Renato Reyes, Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (Bayan) secretary-general, said the government does not need a super body to stop human-rights violations.

“The DOJ (Department of Justice) could very well file the appropriate charges against known rights violators,” he said.

“This super body seems more of a public relations ploy rather than a serious effort at attaining justice for human-rights victims.

“What is happening now is that the DOJ is sitting on cases such as the massacre of Leonard Co and his two companions. It is well-known that Co’s group was massacred by elements of the 16th Infantry Battalion in Kanangga, Leyte yet no case has been filed in court.”

A Commission on Human Rights probe had concluded that no encounter with the New People’s Army (NPA) took place in Leyte.

Co and his companions Julius Borromeo and Sofronio Cortez had been mistaken as members of the NPA.

Last December, two organizers of COURAGE were snatched and jailed on murder charges supposedly involving the NPA.

Bayan is questioning the inclusion of the Department of National Defense, Armed Forces, and the Philippine National Police in the inter-agency committee.