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More tidings of hope came from the military on Friday.
This was in the form of a front-page Inquirer report that the young
officers of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) reject the
“Palparan solution.”
The report, from Quinapondan, Eastern Samar,
quotes Lt. Gen. Pedro Ike Insierto, head of the AFP Central Command,
saying that the “Palparan solution” has not solved the
country’s insurgency problem and might even have aggravated it by
creating more dissatisfaction with government.
General Insierto did not describe what the
“Palparan solution” is supposed to be when asked but gave the
curt reply, “You know what it is.” But he did say, according to
the Inquirer report, “Nothing came out with this Palparan
solution. Look at him, he has long retired from the service yet he
is still being hounded by allegations of human rights abuses.”
Human rights workers as well as relatives of
missing or murdered persons suspected by the military of being
communist rebels or New People’s Army (NPA) supporters have been
claiming that wherever Gen. Jovito Palparan was assigned forced
disappearances and extrajudicial killings markedly increased. They
also claim that men under Palparan or men associated with his units
are the perpetrators.
General Insierto made his unfavorable remarks
about the “Palparan solution,” the Inquirer reported, “in his
talks with the 801st Infantry Brigade commander, Brig. Gen. Francis
Lanuza, other military officials and five town mayors in the
province.”
Why insurgency persists
“The [military] operations that we have
conducted were one of the reasons why up to now, the insurgency
problem still persists in the country,” the Inquirer report also
quotes General Inserto to have said.
The assertion that a “new and young
generation” of AFP officers rejects the “Palparan solution”
reinforces our hopes that the relatively new Chief of Staff Gen.
Alexander Yano’s exhortations are being heeded by the soldiery.
Armed Forces Chief of Staff Yano, in his first
address to the officers and men of the AFP, said he gives the
highest value to the dignity and human rights of every human being
and that he expects government officers and soldiers to do the same.
Even in the course of fighting to uphold the sovereignty of the
Republic against enemies, he told the AFP officers and men, they
must never fail to consider the human rights of the enemy.
In his latest remarks about the Philippines,
United Nations Rapporteur Philip Alston—who was called a
“muchacho” (houseboy) by the distinguished Secretary of
Justice—said of the improvements in the Philippine human rights
situation that “only the first steps have been taken so far. Not a
single soldier has yet been convicted and punished for any of these
killings.” And he laments that victims have not been given justice
and that the government, the military and police authorities have
not taken the necessary steps “ to deter commanders from returning
in the future to [the practice of] such killings.”
Work with the people
To win the war against the Communist Party of
the Philippines and the NPA, both Generals Yano and Insierto have
instructed the AFP officers and soldiers to closely cooperate with
the people and various social groups—local government units,
church leaders and volunteers, journalists and the villagers
themselves.
We hope Yano’s and Insierto’s strongly
worded human rights commitments yield tangible results.
We expect, for instance, the AFP command
henceforth to help prosecutors by yielding evidence and witnesses
against perpetrators of human rights abuses in the military.
Doing so will make the AFP a shining beacon of
hope and a stronger military force that the people will trust.
That will surely help end the NPA rebellion.
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