Human rights groups on Wednesday held a protest outside the House of Representatives to voice out their objections to some of the provisions of the proposed bill classifying extrajudicial killings (EJKs) committed by government officials as a “heinous crime.”
“Karapatan acknowledges a pending bill seeking to classify extrajudicial killing as a heinous crime as an important step in recognizing the role and accountability of State forces in these killings in the Philippines,” Kaparatan said in a statement.
However, Karapatan deputy secretary general Atty. Maria Sol Taule said that it should be in conformity with current domestic and international instruments and agreements, which include the Comprehensive Agreement on Respect for Human Rights and International Humanitarian Law (CARHRIHL); domestic laws on international humanitarian law, torture, enforced disappearance, and children in situations of armed conflict; and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the Geneva Conventions.
“Thus, we believe that provisions of the proposed bill exempting State forces from liability when the killing occurs during military or police operations should be stricken out. CARHRIHL, the domestic law on IHL and the Geneva Conventions should be clearly observed in situations of armed conflict where military and police operations are often conducted,” Taule argued.
She alleged that under the Macapagal-Arroyo and Duterte administrations, summary executions were held by military or police forces against civilians who are members of groups accused of being communist front organizations or suspected of supporting the New People’s Army (NPA), and are later improperly depicted as armed combatants killed in military encounters.
“Retaining such a provision will put this bill in danger of playing into the bogus ‘nanlaban’ narrative in the case of drug suspects or the fake ‘killed in an encounter’ narrative in the case of activist,” Taule said.
“It will reinforce the culture of impunity that has shielded masterminds and perpetrators of extrajudicial killings for so long,” she added.
Command responsibility
Further, Karapatan argued that the proposed legislation does not recognize the principle and application of command responsibility, particularly pertaining to the roles of President as the Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces of the Philippines and as head of the government’s executive branch.
“Knowledge of, and responsibility for, the commission of extrajudicial killings in military and police operations are presumed when these are perpetrated in line with government-sponsored campaigns,” Taule said.
The group recalled the sixth anniversary of former president Rodrigo Duterte’s issuance of Executive Order No. 70 creating the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC), which, according to Taule, “has been at the forefront of red-tagging and vilifying activists, human rights defenders and other dissenters, with the objective of isolating them and creating public hostility against them and their work.”
“We cannot discuss any bill on EJKs without citing the state’s role, through the NTF-ELCAC, in justifying and normalizing the extrajudicial killing, enforced disappearance or unjust arrest and detention on trumped-up charges of activists,” she said.
“The enactment of laws against terrorism and terrorist financing expanded the legal bases for arbitrarily connecting activists to terrorism and rendering them vulnerable to unjust arrest on trumped-up charges or ‘neutralization,’ a common military euphemism for killing,” Taule argued.
Karapatan said the Marcos administration “has not done away with the NTF-ELCAC or any of the other repressive and coercive policies and orders issued by Duterte.”
“Is it any wonder that under Ferdinand Marcos Jr., there have been, among others, 119 extrajudicial killings, 14 enforced disappearances and 201 illegal or arbitrary arrests as of November 27, 2024? There have also been 560 documented forced or fake surrenders,” Taule pointed out.
The group called for a stop to all forms of extrajudicial killing, the abolition of the NTF-ELCAC, and for the International Criminal Court to expedite the arrest, prosecution and trial of Duterte.
“At the same time, we demand justice and accountability from the Marcos Jr. regime for continuing the same Duterte-era policies that have engendered the mounting human rights violations and violations of international humanitarian law against the Filipino people,” she said.
—VAL, GMA Integrated News
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