Karapatan strongly condemns the continuing violations of International Humanitarian Law (IHL) perpetrated by State agents against civilians and hors de combat.
In Bohol, National Democratic Front of the Philippines consultant Manuel “Ka Dodie” Tinio was shot seven times after he was arrested on April 14, 2023, while driving a motorcycle between San Miguel City and Ubay town. To conceal their heinous act, the military falsely claimed that Tinio “fought back” and planted a .45 cal pistol on his person to complete their fictitious version of events.
Also arrested by elements of the 47th Infantry Battalion of the Philippine Army on April 14, 2023 in San Miguel City, Bohol was former student activist turned NPA guerrilla Arthur Lucenario. Lucenario was reportedly held for a month before being presented as a casualty in an alleged encounter on May 12 in Barangay Tabuan, Antequera, which is more than 70 kilometers away from San Miguel. His remains bore marks of severe torture.
In Negros Occidental, three civilians have been brutally killed by troops of the 15th IBPA who have been conducting focused operations in Sipalay City and Cauayan since April 23.
On May 21, farmer Gusting Mapos was killed by soldiers in Sitio Bajay, Barangay Caliling, Cauayan town after chancing upon him while he was on his way to his farm. To justify the killing, the 15th IBPA claimed that Mapos was an NPA casualty in a supposed encounter. The soldiers even planted a cal .45 pistol, a command-detonated explosive and blasting cap, two magazines, ammunition and a backpack on the victim. Local residents, however, vehemently denied that an encounter had taken place in the area.
In Sipalay City, 15th IBPA troops arrested Jonel Bayno, a resident of Barangay Manlucahoc. His lifeless body was later found at Crossing Tanduay in Barangay Camindangan on May 25.
A few days later, the same troopers arrested Rogelio Lacton, a resident of Barangay Camindangan. He was later found dead in Sitio Sadlum of the same barangay on May 27.
International humanitarian law prohibits the killing or harming of both civilians and combatants who have been rendered hors de combat (out of combat) because they have been captured, wounded or surrendered or otherwise incapable of participating in hostilities due to illness or some other disability.
These continuing reports of IHL violations targeting captured or incapacitated NPA members as well as civilians in communities considered to be hotbeds of insurgency underscore the hollowness and the evident hypocrisy of the Philippine government’s formal acquiescence to several IHL protocols, as well as its enactment in 2009 of Republic Act No. 9851, or the “Philippine Act on Crimes Against International Humanitarian Law, Genocide, and Other Crimes Against Humanity.” It has likewise showed contempt for the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, and to the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment.
Karapatan demands a stop to these incessant violations of International Humanitarian Law and calls on the Commission on Human Rights to conduct a thoroughgoing investigation of both the grave breaches of IHL, of the international human rights instruments to which the Philippine government is a signatory as well as applicable local laws.