Fact finding

Idon’t personally know Elisa “Nene” Badayos or even her husband and her son, both of whom died (the former has been missing for years now) earlier than her. Nene and one other member of a fact-finding team were killed in Bayawan, Negros Oriental by still unidentified gunmen. The team was in the town to look into alleged human rights violations that happened there.

“Tragic” is written all over the story of the Badayos family. But it also shows how determined the members of the family are in holding on to their beliefs. Those of weaker stuff would have backed off after the family patriarch went “missing.” Instead, the quest for justice fired them up.

The formation of fact-finding missions by human rights activists is not new. This was the practice especially in the waning years of the dictatorship of Ferdinand Marcos when human rights groups became assertive of their role in the societal setup at that time. In the early days, the missions’ findings did gain credence, until critics began putting them down supposedly for allegedly being used as a propaganda tool by insurgents.

The job of fact-finding missions has always been dangerous and tricky. Most of the alleged human rights violations committed by government forces are in the war zones where the level of violence is on the upper rungs. Imagine going to those places after the eruption of violence and when emotions are still high and fear is widespread. And more often than not, these areas are where armed groups maraud.

This is probably why only few big-name personalities now join fact-finding missions. Instead of respect, they are met with suspicion and hostility by authorities. The recent incident in Bayawan may prod human rights groups to rethink the program and weigh the gains achieved with their formation as opposed to the risks. If not, they should be extra careful in assessing the dangers existing in concerned areas.

I think this is the first time in decades that a fact-finding mission, which I should stress is unarmed, is being attacked by armed men. Which means that the hostility against these missions may have reached a new point under the current administration. The police have promised an investigation of the incident. Let us see how this would turn out. We know that this has become worrisome if the probe is intentionally bungled.

What this incident shows to me is that nothing much has changed in places where rebels are operating and government’s counter-insurgency drive is intense. But again this has always been the setup in war situations throughout the centuries. The hope that waging war would change after nations signed protocols after protocols mandating a more civilized and humane conduct by the protagonists has not been realized.

That is why I insist that efforts to negotiate a settlement of the conflict should prevail over the conduct of an all-out war. As one who has experienced and seen the horrors of this war, I say that the peace talks should prevail so that lives like those of members of the Badayos family and many others—to include government troops-won’t continue to be wasted.