Relatives of victims of human rights violations criticized the House of Representatives (HOR) Committee on Human Rights for its “insensitivity” to their “urgent and immediate concerns for justice.” The reaction came after yesterday’s (May 26) omnibus hearing on several cases of rights abuses
Nelson Salvador, husband of extrajudicial killing victim Engr. Fidela Salvador said, “The committee opted to hear the perpetrators instead of hearing the facts of the case from us—the families, victims, and witnesses.”
Relatives of victims of human rights violations criticized the House of Representatives (HOR) Committee on Human Rights for its “insensitivity” to their “urgent and immediate concerns for justice.” The reaction came after yesterday’s (May 26) omnibus hearing on several cases of rights abuses
Nelson Salvador, husband of extrajudicial killing victim Engr. Fidela Salvador said, “The committee opted to hear the perpetrators instead of hearing the facts of the case from us—the families, victims, and witnesses.”
Salvador was among the relatives and victims present in the hearing but said they were not given the chance to speak. “It is painful for us to hear the same old scripted lies and barefaced alibis of the Armed Forces of the Philippines and the Philippine National Police to absolve themselves from the crimes against our loved ones and our families,” he said.
Aside from the case of Fidela Salvador, which violated international humanitarian law, the committee also tackled the case of slain Dutch aid worker Willhem Geertman, fair trade activist Romeo Capalla, and Karapatan worker William Buggati; the killing and disappearance of indigenous people’s leaders and anti-mining activists; arrest and harassment of peasant leaders and political activists like Andrea Rosal, Edward Lanzanas, and Rudy Sambajon; and a host of children’s rights violations.
The victims and relatives have long waited for the hearing, saying it was “long-overdue” and the resolutions were “gathering dust in Congress.” Some of the resolutions were filed as early as 2013 and relatives like Nelson Salvador religiously followed up Congress on this.
“Actually the committee opted to hear the state agencies first. But we came to register our point.” Salvador scored the Congress’ foot-dragging in acting on the resolutions, the preference to hear the accused first instead of the victims and relatives, and in conducting an omnibus hearing for all the cases instead of giving ample time to individual cases of human rights violation.
“We strongly urge Congress to immediately act on them, because it is through these investigations that victims can ferret out the truth to help us in this lonely and painful crusade for justice. Justice delayed is justice denied,” Salvador added.
Karapatan said the outcome of yesterday’s hearing may be a “preview” of the next congressional inquiries on human rights abuses under the BS Aquino regime. “Congress should prove these hearings are not token exercises to absolve BS Aquino’s state security forces from accountability,” said Karapatan Secretary General Cristina Palabay who was invited by the Makabayan bloc to serve as resource person.
Karapatan has documented 238 victims of extrajudicial killings and 270 victims of frustrated killings under the BS Aquino government. “The killings and disappearances continue despite the Philippine government’s assurances at the UN Universal Periodic Review in 2012 that it would take ‘firm measures to address the problem’ and despite the recommendations of UN Special Rapporteur Prof. Philip Alston for the GPH to direct the military to cease labelling and targeting human rights defenders,” said Palabay.
“Oplan Bayanihan’s implementation has resulted in the continuing extrajudicial killings and a host of other human rights violations that victimized HR defenders, political activists and non-activists alike, only because they are labeled as ‘enemies of the state’ and ‘members of communist front organizations’,” added Palabay.