Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, January 28) — Senate committees have urged the Philippine National Police (PNP) and the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) to hold an internal investigation on the killings of communist groups in Negros Island.
The Senate Committee on Public Order and Dangerous Drugs, led by Sen. Ronald “Bato” dela Rosa, and Committee Justice and Human Rights led by Sen. Richard Gordon, submitted Committee Report (CRN) 33 recommending the identification of the members of an anti-communist vigilante group responsible for the killings.
The report, signed by 11 senators, recommends that the PNP and the AFP should conduct a probe in their ranks and gather evidence for possible filing of administrative and criminal liabilities against police and military personnel involved in the implementation of “Oplan Sauron” for possible human rights abuses.
The Senate report also recommended that members of an alleged anti-communist vigilante group “Kagubak” or Kawsa Guihulnganon Batok Komunista, along with other groups who were involved in the series of killings of alleged New People’s Army members should be identified and charged in court.
“To say that the period between October 2018 and July 2019 was bloody is a gross understatement. In that eight-month period, a series of killings and attempted killings took place in both provinces. No one was spared – men, women and children suffered at the hands of lawless armed men,” the report read.
The two committees made the recommendations after conducting a hearing on the killing of nine farmers in October, 20, 2018 by some 40 armed men in Barangay Bulanon, Sagay City; and the killing of a human rights lawyer last November 6, 2018.
The report noted that the Simultaneous Enhanced Managing of Police Operations, which involved the PNP and several battalions of the AFP, was launched on December 27, 2018 and its second version, “Oplan Sauron,” was launched on March 30, 2019.
These two police-military operations reportedly led to the killing of six persons and the arrest of 31 individuals, some of them from militant groups Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas and Pinagkaisang Samahan ng mga Tsuper at Operators Nationwide.
