In many rural villages, Oplan Bayanhihan has displaced thousands of families due to heavy military operations. At least 77 families have evacuated from the mountain community of Magkahunao and Upper Janipaan in Buhisan village, San Agustin, Surigao del Sur since June 26, 2011. There are 141 families with 553 individuals who evacuated from Mahaba village and are staying at the Marihatag Municipal Gym, bringing the number of Surigao del Sur evacuees to 218 families or about 800 individuals.

Soldiers of the 29th Infantry Battalion of the Philippine Army occupied the village hall, health center, day care center and Sangguniang Kabataan offices in Mahaba village since May 6. Classes at the Mahaba Elementary School, San Roque Primary School, Magkahunao Community School and Luknodon Community School have been disrupted because of the evacuation.

In the Cordillera region, soldiers of the 501st, 502nd and 503rd Brigades, all under the 5th Infantry Division have been deployed in the communities of Abra, Mountain Province, Benguet, Kalinga and Ifugao. According to the Cordillera Human Rights Alliance (CHRA), Aquino’s Oplan Bayanihan has resulted in intensified military operations in indigenous peoples’communities. “Violations of individual and collective rights such as destruction of properties, bombings, shelling, sexual abuse, illegal searches and seizures, threat/harassment/intimidation, illegal arrests and detention, and military encampment, were the results of these operations,” the CHRA said.

In the Ilocos region, massive military operations of 503rd Brigade last September 2010 have led to other violations on individual and collective rights such as in Santa Lucia and its neighboring towns.

In Cagayan Valley region, communities especially in the provinces of Cagayan and Isabela, have also been subjected to intensified military operations under the 5th IDPA.

Olalia pointed out that the Aquino administration has not complied with majority of the recommendations of then UN Special Rapporteur on Extrajudicial, Summary or Arbitrary Executions Philip Alston. He said that while the Inter-Agency Legal Action Group (IALAG) has been dismantled, the practice of filing “trumped-up or erroneous charges” against many political activists continues.

Recently, murder charges have been revived against 72 Southern Tagalog activists. Mildren Salang-ey, a member of the Mountain Province Youth Alliance (MPYA), has also been slapped with “trumped-up charges” by the military.

On June 18, Marilyn Condes, 42, a development worker formerly affiliated with the Cebu Relief and Rehabilitation Center (crrc), was arrested by six elements of the Joint Intelligence operatives of 303rd Brigade, Philippine army and Philippine National Police in Bacolod City. She was charged with rebellion.

Karapatan warns that the human rights violations that were committed during the first year of the Aquino presidency is a “warning of things to come in the next years under the Aquino government, until and unless the Aquino government acts now to sincerely address the root causes of insurgency and punish those who committed crimes against the people, in the past and under his own rule.”

Cristina Palabay of Tanggol Bayi and Alliance Against Impunity called on Aquino to stop the killings, surface all the disappeared, open up military camps and safehouses, initiate the filing of charges against Arroyo and her military for human rights abuses, grant unconditional, general and omnibus amnesty to the more than 300 political prisoners and enact bills protecting human rights.

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