Legal Moves

Clamor said they would file counter charges against the military, including administrative, civil and criminal charges.

“We will charge them for violating the Anti-Torture Law,” said Clamor.

Clamor said not all of the 43 detainees have been examined by a doctor of their own choice, a violation of the Republic Act 7438. He said they already sent two letters of request to military authorities regarding this.

Last week, Dr. June Pagaduan-Lopez, a psychiatrist of the Philippine General Hospital, said in a press conference that they were prevented from doing a psychiatric examination of the 43 health workers.

Complaints before the Commission on Human Rights (CHR) against the military are also forthcoming within the week, Bayan said.

Consistent

Clamor, a longtime human rights activist, said the Arroyo government is consistent in awarding and promoting the most notorious human rights violators, citing the case of retired Gen. Jovito Palparan Jr. At the height of the extra-judicial killings and disappearances in 2006, President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo lavished praises on Palparan in her State of the Nation Address.

“It was Arroyo who hastened Palparan’s promotion, from colonel to brigadier general in 2003, to major general in 2004. In spite of his bloody record in Southern Tagalog, he was made commander of the the 8th Infantry Division in Eastern Visayas, then the 7th Infantry Division in Central Luzon,” the Ecumenical Movement for Justice and Peace (EMJP) said.

“For to be a hero in the eyes of Gloria Arroyo and her minions in the AFP is to vilify, abduct, torture, illegally detain, execute those they consider as enemy of the state whether armed or unarmed, combatant or civilian,” the EMJP said in a statement.

“To be a hero is to follow orders from above, whether it is legal or illegal, whether is right or wrong,” it added.

Military officers implicated in the abduction of activist Jonas Burgos namely Noel Clement, Melquiades Feliciano and Edison Caga were also promoted to colonel by Arroyo.

The EMJP said other men in uniform who have been promoted, awarded recognition, sent to military schools abroad because they have violated human rights include Gen. Delfin Bangit, Col. Oscar Lactao, Lt. Gen. Roland Detabali.

The group said more will be accused as “NPA rebels” as the AFP attempts to meet its June 2010 deadline for its anti-insurgency program Oplan Bantay Laya. (Bulatlat.com)

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