Department of Justice Secretary Menardo Guevarra (File photo)
MANILA – The government is crafting an improved work process to review nearly 2,000 alleged violations of the International Humanitarian Law (IHL), mostly committed by organized armed groups.
Department of Justice Secretary Menardo Guevarra told reporters via text message that the Inter-Agency Committee on Extra-Legal Killings, Enforced Disappearances, Torture and Other Grave Violations of the Right to Life, Liberty and Security of Persons (IAC) under Administrative Order No. 35 met on May 12 “to streamline workflow of cases".
He said they will come up with a "procedure for determining whether a case falls under the ambit of AO 35 or constitutes an ordinary crime".
“The working group will focus on IHL cases where the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) has provided records of the incidents,” Guevarra said. “They will determine how to proceed with the case buildup, particularly getting the sworn statements of witnesses, and sending subpoenas to armed respondents who have no permanent addresses.”
He said a number of the cases referred by the military were allegedly committed by the New People’s Army (NPA).
“We have not reviewed all the incidents, numbering 1,800, referred to the AO 35 committee by the AFP but those that we have examined so far pertained to acts of the NPA,” Guevarra said.
Among the IHL cases to be referred to the working group are 263 incidents supported with records from Calabarzon, Mimaropa, Bicol, and Eastern, Central, and Western Visayas.
Guevarra said there are also 29 alleged extrajudicial killings and torture cases in Calabarzon and Eastern Visayas that were delisted for lack of witnesses or lack of interest on the part of the complainants.
"Most of these cases reached the investigation stage at the PNP (Philippine National Police), CHR (Commission on Human Rights), and NPS (National Prosecution Service) levels only. The review of unsolved AO 35 cases in other regions is still going on," he said.
The IAC was formed under AO35 in 2012 and is the government's institutional machinery dedicated to the resolution of unsolved cases of political violence such as extra-legal killings, disappearances, torture, and other grave violations of the right to life and liberty of persons. (PNA)
