Rights group expresses grave concern on possible IHL violations vs NPA members killed in Iloilo

KARAPATAN expresses grave concern over reports that the bodies of six members of the New People’s Army (NPA) who died in an alleged gunbattle in Iloilo on August 8, 2024 bore marks of torture.

According to the group’s Panay chapter, the bodies had large and small punctures in the chest, fractured arms and extensive bruising from head to toe, injuries inconsistent with what might be sustained in a firefight.

Adding to the families’ suspicions, they were required by the military to sign documents stating that they would not pursue legal action, in an apparent attempt by the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) to escape accountability for possible violations of international humanitarian law (IHL). IHL forbids the harming or killing of captured enemy combatants, and also prohibits the desecration of the dead.

It is an outrage for such atrocities to have been committed, especially in August, which is marked as International Humanitarian Law Month, with the AFP and police hypocritically paying their usual lip service to observing IHL principles.
Not even the enactment of a law (Republic Act No. 9851 or An Act Defining and Penalizing Crimes Against International Humanitarian Law) has deterred state security forces from committing various acts in violation of IHL in the course of the counter-insurgency war.

The summary execution of the Bilar 5 in Bohol and the extrajudicial killing of Kalista Peralta in Bukidnon are but two of the most recent killings of hors de combat perpetrated by state security forces under the Marcos Jr. regime.

Civilians, who are especially protected under IHL, have also been bearing the brunt of the Marcos Jr. brutal counter-insurgency war, with the vast majority of the 105 cases of extrajudicial killings under the current regime consisting of civilians made out to be NPA members allegedly killed in fake encounters. Civilians’ livelihoods have also been disrupted with the imposition of food and economic blockades and the conduct of aerial and artillery strikes on their production areas.

We welcome the Commission on Human Rights’ decision to conduct a motu propio investigation of this mɑtter in hopes thɑt the victims ɑnd their fɑmilies find justice ɑnd the perpetrators found accountable.