Slaughter of Innocents

AT GLANCE: Today, the Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) in Hong Kong has issued an open letter to Commissioner Leila De Lima, the newly appointed head of the Commission on Human Rights in the Philippines (CHRP), seeking for their adequate action into probing the various forms of arbitrary deprivation of lives in the country. Commissioner De Lima’s attention was drawn following her office’s response into the May 22 killing of three persons on pretext of “legitimate encounter”.

In his open letter, Moon Jeong Ho, programme officer of the AHRC’s urgent appeals programme, said that while he conveys his appreciation to the Commissioner’s action on the May 22 incident, he was concern that that case itself was a small fraction from what is actually continuously taking place in the country.

Apart from the “legitimate encounter” whom the Commissioner already described as a form of summary execution by the police authorities themselves, he likewise mentioned that cases of deaths on various pretexts; for instance, Vigilante Killings, Gang War and Shootout/Rubout.

Moon urges the Commission to acknowledge this in public and take appropriate action in finding reasonable and long term solution to these phenomenon; and for the Commissioner to pro-actively respond on investigating on its own cases individual cases; and other cases involving violation of rights.

Photo: A public market in Davao City, Mindanao were murders of persons on pretext of “vigilante killings” takes place in its surroundings routinely/AHRC