At the ongoing Inter-Agency Committee on Extra Judicial Killings and Enforced Disappearances meeting in Acacia Hotel, Bacolod City, human rights groups and progressive organizations reiterated their call for an impartial probe on the state-sponsored killings in Negros under the previous Duterte regime.

While the taskforce meeting was on its second day today, peasant groups led by Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (KMP) Negros led a picket rally outside the venue to renew their demands for justice for the victims of Negros killings and challenge the task force to uphold its mandate.

“Ngaa subong lang kamo nag ginuwa? Ara sa poder mismo ang manug patay sa pumuluyo, ilabi nagid sa hanay sang mga mangunguma kag aktibista,” KMP Negros spokesperson Danilo Tabura addressed the task force during the picket rally.

Just the previous day, October 24, Tabura alongside National Federation of Sugar Workers (NFSW) Negros spokesperson Mario Tapi-on received death threats through text messages from an unknown number. They also report two unidentified men posting outside the groups’ headquarters.

Human Rights Advocates Negros (HRAN) also challenged the Inter-Agency Committee to look into the cases of death threats of human rights defenders in Negros Island, including Noli Rosales, Ereneo Longinos, Butch Lozande and Felipe Gelle, as well as the recent cases of Danilo Tabura and Mario Tapi-on, and trumped up charges against activist and leaders of farmers and farmworker organizations.

“The committee must not be a tool of repression by any sitting president so that trust in the justice system will emerge. It should work with promptness and impartiality and not simply to douse deodorant on the stinking image of the past Duterte administration or beautify the current Marcos administration,” said HRAN in a statement.

At of the end of the Duterte administration, Karapatan Negros reported about 109 cases of extra judicial killings, of which 39 from Negros Occidental and 70 from Negros Oriental, and most of whom are farmers. The deadliest period was at the duration of Memorandum Order 32 that placed Negros Island under a State of Emergency with 38 cases.

“To date, what the police and the DOJ has done was to merely record the gruesome murders and worse, harassed the families and friends of the victims,” HRAN added.

The Duterte government faces widespread condemnation for the apparent state-sponsored killings and other forms of attacks on right to life, liberty and security of persons before the United Nations General Assembly and the United Nation Human Rights Council and other international bodies. It also faces a probe before the International Criminal Court for drug war killings.

Among the notable cases of these state-sponsored killings are Atty, Benjamin Ramos Jr. (November 2018), Bernardino Patigas (April 2019), Zara Alvarez (August 2020), Elisa Badajos (November 2017) and Alexander Ceballos (January 2017), the Sagay Nine Massacre, the Oplan Sauron 1 and 2 in Negros Oriental that killed 20 farmers, killings related to KAGUBAK list in Guihulngan City, Negros Oriental, the Massacre of Jacolbe family and the disappearance of Iver Larit of KADAMAY this year. 

The Inter-Agency Committee (IAC) was created through Administrative Order 35 series of 2012 by the late President Benigno Aquino III as a government body to resolve cases of extrajudicial killings, enforced disappearances and other cases of rights violations. 

The IAC is chaired by by the Secretary of Justice, alongside Presidential Human Rights Committee (PHRCP), Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG), Department of National Defense (DND), Presidential Adviser for Political Affairs (PAPA), Chief of Staff of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP), Director General of the Philippine National Police (PNP), and Director of the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI).