By DOMINIC GUTOMAN
Bulatlat.com
MANILA – Amid the commemoration of the International Humanitarian Law (IHL) month, rights groups reported signs of torture in the bodies of six members of the New People’s Army (NPA) in Iloilo, who allegedly died in a gunfight on August 8, 2024.
Karapatan-Panay said that the bodies had large and small punctures in the chest, fractured arms, and extensive bruising from head to toe, “injuries inconsistent with what might be sustained in a firefight.”
“It is an outrage for such atrocities to have been committed, especially in August, which is marked as International Humanitarian Law (IHL) Month, with the Armed Forces of the Philippines and police hypocritically paying their usual lip service to observing IHL principles,” Karapatan said.
The families of the slain NPA members were also reportedly harassed as they were required by the military to sign documents stating that they would not pursue legal action.
This move, according to Karapatan, is an “apparent attempt by the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) to escape accountability for possible violations of IHL.”
Progressive formation Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (Bayan) also condemned the harassment. “We hope that the investigation of the Commission on Human Rights (CHR) will remain independent in the pursuit of truth and justice.”
The CHR is set to conduct a motu proprio investigation in hopes that the victims and their families find justice and the perpetrators be held accountable. This kind of investigation is an independent and spontaneous inquiry conducted by the CHR without formal request or referral.
Probing potential IHL violations is within the CHR’s scope of investigative function. Under Article 3 of the Geneva Conventions, hors de combat (incapacitated combatants/out of fight) either through sickness, wounds, detention, or any other cause, shall be treated humanely.
The Comprehensive Agreement on Respect for Human RIghts and IHL (CARHRIHL) also prohibits the desecration of the remains of those who have died in the course of armed conflict, particularly Article 3(4) of Part IV of the document. It is also stated in Article 4(9) that “Every possible measure shall be taken, without delay, to prevent mutilation of the dead.”
Even outside the context of armed conflict, torture is strictly prohibited. It is defined as severe pain or suffering, whether physical or mental, intentionally inflicted on a person for such purposes of obtaining information, punishment, coercion, or any form of discrimination.
It is clear in Article 2 of the United Nations Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhumane, or Degrading Act that “no exceptional circumstances whatsoever, whether a state of war or a threat of war, internal political instability or any other public emergency, may be invoked as a justification of torture.”
The Philippines ratified the Torture Convention on June 18, 1986, mandating the government to prohibit torture and other cruel acts. This is supplemented by a domestic law, the “Anti-Torture Act” passed in 2009.
“Not even the enactment of a law has deterred state security forces from committing various acts in violation of IHL in the course of the counter-insurgency war,” said Karapatan.
Both Karapatan and Bayan pointed out that the recent killing of hors de combat is becoming a pattern, especially the case of Bilar 5 in Bohol where five NPA members were killed earlier this year. Authorities said the five were killed in a three-hour gun battle. Families and groups, however, insisted that the fighters were captured alive and publicly executed to intimidate the residents from supporting the guerilla army.
Read: Young lawyer, 4 NPA comrades massacred by AFP—CPP
“The recent massacre in Iloilo is a reminder that the machineries of repression are very much in place. The ongoing budget hearings in Congress should be an occasion to call for the defunding of government instrumentalities responsible for committing grave abuses against the people,” said Bayan.
In the ruling of the International Peoples’ Tribunal earlier this year, the administrations of Ferdinand Marcos Jr. and Rodrigo Duterte found to be guilty of IHL violations for its willful killing of NPA fighters already rendered hors de combat.
Read: A second look at the cases presented at the International Peoples Tribunal on the Philippines
“The shocking conduct of GRP forces are blatant violations of the most fundamental rules in warfare: the duty to treat captured enemies humanely and to allow the fallen their dignity in death. Apart from being war crimes, these acts of the AFP expose an utter disdain for the principle of humanity and deserve the utmost condemnation by this Tribunal,” the ruling read. (RTS, RVO) 
