Rights groups files case vs AFP 'hit list'

MANILA, Philippines - Human rights advocates, legislators and relatives of the late labor leader Crispin Beltran on Friday asked protection from the Supreme Court after a 'hit list' containing the names of 70 activists in Mindanao and leaders of progressive groups surfaced. 

 

Assisted by their counsels from the National Union of People's Lawyers, the members of the various groups and party-list lawmakers filed writs of amparo and habeas data before the high court in Manila, decrying threats to their "life, liberty and security" with the existence of a hit list.

 

The petitioners alleged that 'hit list' was attached to a criminal complaint by the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) and Philippine National Police (PNP) on charges of kidnapping, serious illegal detention, and human trafficking. 

 

The crimes were allegedly committed against some evacuees from Lumad communities in Davao del Norte and Bukidnon. 

 

There are more than 700 evacuees, who were forced to flee due to AFP operations and rights abuses, staying at the compound of the United Church of Christ in the Philippines (UCCP) in Davao City, the petitioners said. 

 

"...In the first place, [that] the complaints for kidnapping and serious illegal detention and human trafficking are clearly manufactured and meant to distort the truth behind the Manobos' terrible ordeal and disparage human rights and humanitarian workers who came to their aid," the petitioners said.

 

They cited the statement of the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Human Rights of Internally Displaced persons Dr. Chaloka Beyani, who said that the Lumads are "not victims of human trafficking."

 

"The indigenous peoples whom I interviewed informed me that they relocated to this facility freely and in response to the militarization of their lands and territories and forced recruitment into paramilitary groups operating under the auspices of the AFP," the petitioners quoted Beyani in his statement after an official visit to the Philippines.

 

Beyani said that last  July 24, government officials led by North Cotabato Rep. Nancy Catamco and the Department of Social Welfare and Development, with paramilitary groups and the PNP raided the UCCP compound in Davao to force the Lumad to go back to their communities where AFP operations are still ongoing.

 

Ofelia Balleta-Beltran, daughter of the late labor leader and former Anakpawis partylist lawmaker, alleged that his father's name has been dragged into the criminal charges despite his death years after.

 

"Ikinulong at tinortyur na nga ng AFP ang tatay ko nung siya ay nabubuhay pa. Hanggang ngayon ba naman, patay na siya, gumagawa pa ng mga kwento para sampahan siya ng mga gawa-gawang kaso," she said. 

 

Among the named respondents in the petition are President Benigno Aquino III, Defense Secretary Voltaire Gazmin, AFP Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Hernando Iriberri, PNP Chief Ricardo Marquez, Army Chief Maj. Gen. Eduardo Año and Eastern Mindanao Command Chief Lt. Gen. Aurelio Baladad.