Human Rights Watch calls for probe on Sunday’s raids in PHL

INTERNATIONAL GROUP Human Rights Watch on Sunday called on the Philippine government to investigate

the simultaneous raids conducted by police in several areas where five members of left-leaning legal organizations were killed and several others arrested. The group said the string of police raids conducted in the neighboring provinces of Laguna, Rizal, Batangas and Cavite are “clearly part of the government’s increasingly brutal counter-insurgency campaign aimed at eliminating the 52-year-old Communist insurgency.” Human Rights Watch Deputy Asia Director Phil Robertson, said in a statement, “It is not a coincidence that these deadly raids happened two days after President Rodrigo Duterte ordered police and military to ‘kill all’ communists and ‘don’t mind human rights’.” He also said, “The fundamental problem is this campaign no longer makes any distinction between armed rebels and noncombatant activists, labor leaders, and rights defenders.” Local group Kapatid, composed of family and friends of political prisoners, confirmed the killing of Manny Asuncion, Bayan-Cavite coordinator; Michael Dasigao and Mark “Makmak” Lee Corros Bacasno, urban poor leaders in Montalban; and Chai Lemita-Evangelista and Ariel Evangelista, fisherfolk leaders in Nasugbu, Batangas. Those arrested were Nimfa Lanzanas, a human rights worker; Steve Mendoza, executive vice-president of Olalia-KMU and former union head at F-Tech; and Elizabeth Camoral, spokesperson of Bayan-Laguna, according to Kapatid. Human Rights Watch noted that the raids occurred in provinces overseen by Lt. Gen. Antonio Parlade, Jr., who has been known for tagging groups and individuals as communist members or supporters without legal evidence. At least 188 human rights defenders have been killed under the Duterte administration while 426 activists and community organizers were arrested, according to Karapatan, an alliance of human rights groups in the Philippines. —