DOJ-led committee to select which to probe in 1,500 'violations' of IHL

The Department of Justice (DOJ)-led inter-agency committee on extrajudicial killings (EJKs) will screen which of the more than 1,500 alleged violations of the International Humanitarian Law (IHL) reportedly committed by communist terrorist groups will be investigated.

“The violations consisted mainly of attacks on civilian properties, willful killing of civilians/non-combatants, children involved in armed conflict, and use of anti-personnel mines from 2010 to 2020,” Assistant State Prosecutor Gino Paolo S. Santiago, head of the committee’s secretariat, said in a statement.

Santiago said the inter-agency committee (IAC) has already “directed the AO35 Technical Working Group (TWG) to review the available evidence, determine if the incidents may indeed be considered as AO35 cases, and recommend further actions in order to move forward with the cases.”

Santiago said the cases were submitted by the Armed Forces of the Philippines Center for Law of Armed Conflict (AFP-CLOAC) during the 14th regular meeting of the committee, known as AO 35 Inter-Agency Committee on Extra-Legal Killings, Enforced Disappearances, Torture and Other Grave Violations of the Right to Life, Liberty and Security of Persons. The committee was created under the 2012 Administrative Order No. 35.

He said the committee’s TWG has begun reviewing incidents in Regions V, VII and VIII.

“The review will continue until the end of November 2021, focusing on incidents that transpired in Regions IVA, IVB and VI,” he also said.

“Review of incidents that occurred in other regions will begin in 2022,” he added.

Santiago explained the AO 35 “serves as the government’s institutional machinery dedicated to the investigation of unsolved cases of political violence in the form of extra-legal killings (ELK), enforced disappearances (ED), torture, and other grave violations of the right to life, liberty and security of persons. Under the Operational Guidelines of AO35, resolution of violations of IHL falls under the mandate of the IAC. “

Early on Monday, Nov. 15, Justice Secretary Menardo I. Guevarra said the probe on the alleged violations of IHL was initiated by the AFP, itself.

The IHL applies to armed conflict. It is “a set of rules which seek, for humanitarian reasons, to limit the effects of armed conflict.” It also “protects persons who are not or are no longer participating in the hostilities, and restricts the means and methods of warfare.”