Senator Richard Gordon on Wednesday joined calls for an immediate investigation of the bloody police-military crackdown that killed nine activists and arrested six across the Calabarzon Region last Sunday, March 7.
Gordon said an independent probe questioning the “culture of elimination” and “climate of kill, kill, kill” perpetrated by the country’s law enforcement authorities is warranted in light of the President’s pronouncements against communist rebels.
The senator earlier expressed his disgruntlement at the joint operations conducted by the Philippine National Police (PNP) and the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP), where the former reported they were merely serving search warrants.
PNP maintained the operation was legitimate and claimed that the activists fought back against authorities or “nanlaban.”
“When they have surrounded the house and they have a search warrant, the search warrant is not a license to come in and go in with guns ablazing,” Gordon said in a statement.
“It does not do well for our armed forces and police that these things are happening,” Gordon said, also referring to the stabbing of human rights lawyer Atty. Angelo Karlo Guillen, and the encounter that killed Calbayog City, Samar Mayor Ronaldo Aquino and five others.
Gordon said a prompt investigation on the deadly crackdown is necessary and enjoined his fellow lawmakers in the Senate to speak and act on these cases.
The Senate Blue Ribbon Committee chairman also castigated Southern Luzon Command chief Lt. Gen. Antonio Parlade Jr. for his pronouncements on red-tagging—“directives which soldiers might follow strictly.”
“This is where the importance of diplomacy, and military policy comes in. It is only when diplomacy fails that the military goes to war,” Gordon stressed.
“We are still a democracy, that diplomatic efforts in police and military operations are imperative as these will result in a more peaceful and less violent way, and will not foster fear of the enforcers,” the lawmaker emphasized.
Vice President Leni Robredo on Monday, March 8, called for a “clean” and “independent” probe on the Calabarzon killings as she highlighted the need to give justice for what she described a “massacre” of activists.
“We are calling for a clean and independent investigation to ensure that those responsible will be held responsible and that justice will be served,” she added.