What about CPP-NPA atrocities?
FOR the nth time, the Commission on Human Rights (CHR) announced it would conduct an “investigation” on the successful anti-terrorist operation launched by the Philippine Army’s 8th Infantry Division in Dolores, Eastern Samar, last August 16, 2021.
That operation resulted to the death of 20 terrorists in the ranks of the New People’s Army (NPA), prompting its political leadership, the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) to concede in a statement that the success of the operation was a “big loss” to them.
For not only were 20 terrorists killed but the aftermath also resulted to the trickle of surrender among the surviving NPAs, all of them showing wounds from the aerial strike that preceded the ground operation.
As the days wore on, expect that trickle of surrender to become a stream and then a flood as these terrorists realized that they are ‘no match’ for the government should the latter decides to use all of its military resources.
What the CHR hopes to determine at this point, we certainly do not know. Is it starting on the premise that the military operation is “illegal” to begin with?
Or is it falling for the crap being peddled by the CPP that the military resorted to the “inordinate use of force” in dealing with them?
Well, what is wrong for any State to use all available resources to crush an armed movement whose sole goal is to bring down the government—the CHR along with it—by violent means?
On the other hand, the number of CPP-NPA abuses and violence are far longer than the stretch of San Juanico Bridge that connects Samar and Leyte provinces and yet, other than press statements, we have yet to see the CHR release the result of its any investigation with the CPP-NPA as the known culprit.
Asan na nga ba?
While the CHR is mandated to investigate and prosecute all cases of human rights violations and violations of international humanitarian laws particularly involving state security forces, it should recognize that the worst violations have been committed by the armed, lawless elements such as the CPP-NPA. We can take the ‘Inopacan Massacre’ of 1985 as an example.
It would be best for the CHR to reassess its role and position now in our society.
It was not created to focus mainly on state forces abuses. It is there to protect and uphold human rights for all.
It should remove from its ranks those with known “sympathy” to terrorism and terrorists if it wants to enhance its credibility and purpose before the public. In other words, the CHR should always exercise unbiased view of any case brought before it.
