Double Standard Human Rights Advocates

Every time atrocities result to the death of NPA elements or their supporters, KARAPATAN and other NDF-affiliated organizations immediately demand investigation against the military or the police for alleged human rights abuses. Even the government’s own human rights commission is quick to judge and denounce its own security forces for the atrocities without the benefit of due process. Fact-finding missions composed of militant groups masquerading as human rights advocates are immediately sent to the area where the killing happened to investigate. And what result do we expect to get? Obviously, these are biased and one-sided findings against our soldiers or policemen. The fact-finding team has become the witness, lawyer, and judge rolled into one for the CPP-NPA-NDF.

Where are these so called human rights advocates when government forces are the ones ambushed or killed in skirmishes against the rebels? When 19 soldiers were treacherously killed by MILF fighters in Basilan recently, was there a fact-finding mission composed of KARAPATAN and other human rights groups sent to investigate the murders? None. Not even our own CHR. So where is justice here? Is the government’s own human rights commission that naïve to even give a damn? Or comrade Eta Rosales still cannot dissociate herself from her past. Clearly, “once a communist, always a communist”.

But our military and police have their human rights too. They are mandated to protect the citizenry against internal and external security threats. So how come they are not treated fairly by their own government that they are sworn to protect? How many more soldiers will die in vain without achieving the justice they fairly deserve? Do we still need to unmask these bogus human rights advocates to see for ourselves that they only serve the purpose of the CPP-NPA-NDF?

- Malayang Filipino