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Group dares Oca: Respond to rights violations

Human rights group Karapatan in Northern Mindanao has dared Cagayan de Oro City Mayor Oscar Moreno, who heads the Regional Peace and Order Council (PPOC), to be alarmed and respond

to the unchecked human rights violations “happening in his backyard.”

The group said it is the task of the local chief executive to protect his people being the father of the city.

“These events are more than sufficient to turn against the ‘non-existence of human rights violations under Martial Law,”Karapatan said in a statement.

Karapatan-Northern Mindanao posed the challenge after military personnel “forcibly” brought two women human rights defenders from barangay Macabalan for questioning and verification over the alleged links with the New Peoples Army (NPA).

The group condemned the utter disregard of the army’s 4th Infantry Division (4ID), particularly Captain Lorefel Judaya, intelligence officer of the 1st Special Forces Battalion (1st SF) for human rights, taking Gloria Jandayan, 63, and her daughter Gleceria Balangiao, 38, to the 1st SF Battalion camp in Bukidnon, last Monday.

Karapatan is calling the 4ID to release the two human rights advocates, including the other six lumad and farmer activists earlier arrested.

“As the 1st SF, 8th Infantry Battalion (8IB) of the 4ID continue to escalate its attacks against human rights defenders, the people are called to unite against human rights violations and abuses, and to condemn these atrocities that they have committed,”the group said.

The group also called on the various government rights bodies such as the Commission on Human Rights (CHR), churches advocating for the rights and welfare of the Filipino people to investigate and unite against the rising abuse machinized by the Martial Law implemented by President Rodrigo Duterte.

“Silence and indifference today, could never help the victims of human rights abuse, only helping those who propagate terror and fear for the people,”Karapatan added.

For his part, Moreno said he will look into what the group said as unchecked human rights violations in the city.

“I’ll look into it. Although Mindanao is under Martial Law, I think it would still be strange for the military to do arrests of civilians, especially in urban centers,”Moreno said.

It can be recalled that Moreno had expressed his support to the president’s declaration of Martial Law in the whole island of Mindanao following the Marawi City siege.

“This declaration is a decisive and focused move, meant to finally bring lasting peace and harmony in Mindanao. I do fervently hope, however, that the operationalization of martial rule will not subvert the sovereign people’s collective will; and neither will it disregard constitutional guarantees, except in cases that are more than reasonably necessary to achieve its sole purpose,” Moreno earlier said in a statement. Alwen Saliring