‘Retract threat to bomb schools’
Philippines to abolish agency hunting Marcos plunder
MANILA, Philippines, July 26, (Agencies): Human rights groups asked the Philippine president Wednesday to retract a threat to order airstrikes against tribal schools he accused of teaching students to become communist rebels, warning such an attack would constitute a war crime.
US-based Human Rights Watch said international humanitarian law “prohibits attacks on schools and other civilian structures unless they are being used for military purposes,” adding that deliberate attacks on civilians, including students and teachers, “is also a war crime.”
Left-wing Rep Emmi de Jesus of the Gabriela Women’s Party asked Duterte to retract the threat, saying government troops may use it as a pretext to attack indigenous, or Lumad, schools and communities in the country’s south which have come under threat from pro-military militias in recent years.
Angered by recent communist rebel attacks on government forces, including a road gunbattle last week that wounded five members of his elite presidential guards, Duterte has called off peace talks with the Maoist guerrillas and threatened their perceived sympathizers.
In a televised news conference he called late Monday shortly after delivering his annual state of the nation address, Duterte condemned the insurgents for destroying bridges and torching schools in the countryside. But he said that the insurgents were sparing Lumad schools, which he alleged were operating under rebel control without government permits.
“Get out of there, I’m telling the Lumads now. I’ll have those bombed, including your structures,” Duterte said. “I will use the armed forces, the Philippine air force. I’ll really have those bombed ... because you are operating illegally and you are teaching the children to rebel against government.”
Carlos Conde of the Human Rights Watch said that Duterte, by calling for an attack on schools, “is directing the military to commit war crimes.”
Conde urged Duterte to sign a 2015 international political statement, the Safe Schools Declaration, that commits government to support the protection of students, teachers and schools in times of armed conflict.
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MANILA: Philippine President Rodrigo
Duterte’s government plans to abolish the agency tasked with recovering the billions of dollars plundered by late dictator Ferdinand Marcos and his allies, a cabinet member said Wednesday.
The announcement was the latest development in the remarkable political rehabilitation of the Marcos clan, which has accelerated since family ally Duterte became president last year.
“They don’t do anything. What do they do?” Budget Secretary Benjamin Diokno said as he told reporters the government planned to scrap the Presidential Commission on Good Government (PCGG).