Karapatan reiterates call: Scrap paramilitary groups

The inordinate delay in the delivery of justice for the victims of the Ampatuan (Maguindanao) massacre and the recent revelations of the backhoe driver used in that monstrous atrocity exemplify how impunity can run through from one administration to the next; in this case from regimes Arroyo to Aquino. Despite the people’s outrage and more than three years after the massacre, a key government policy that made it possible, Executive Order No. 546, has yet to be revoked by President Aquino.

EO 546, issued during the Arroyo administration, allowed local officials to employ members of the Citizen Armed Force Geographical Unit (Cafgu) and Civilian Volunteer Organizations (CVO) purportedly to help address insurgency in the country. President Aquino expanded and strengthened the order by creating the Special Cafgu Auxiliary Action (SCAA) to protect the operations of mining firms.

EO 546 legitimized the use of civilian-military groups as force multipliers to supposedly combat rebel groups, giving free rein to paramilitary groups and the Armed Forces of the Philippines to commit heinous crimes such as the Ampatuan massacre and protect the interests of big foreign corporations such as transnational mining companies and agrobusiness plantations.

The notoriety of such paramilitary groups continues under the Aquino administration as the AFP employs them for its counterinsurgency operations, pursuant to Oplan Bayanihan, in the communities. Paramilitary groups have been involved in many cases of extrajudicial killings, enforced disappearances and torture in communities where there is opposition to big businesses that dislocate the local peasants and indigenous peoples. From July 2010 (start of Mr. Aquino’s presidency) to April 30, 2013, Karapatan documented 142 cases of extrajudicial killings, 164 frustrated murders, 16 enforced disappearances, 16 children (with ages ranging from four to 15) killed, and 293 persons arrested and detained. Many of these

violations have been perpetrated by paramilitary groups under the command of AFP units.

The continued existence of paramilitary groups in the Philippines has been a major concern among member-countries of the United Nations. During the 2012 UN Universal Periodic Review, where the rights record of the Philippine government was reviewed, several foreign missions called for the immediate dismantling of paramilitary groups such as the Cafgu, SCAA, CVO and the repeal of EO 546.

With Mr. Aquino soon to deliver his fourth State of the Nation Address, we reiterate our call for the dismantling of all paramilitary groups in the country and the revocation of EO 546.

—CRISTINA PALABAY,

secretary general, Karapatan