Justice Secretary Menardo I. Guevarra on Monday, Nov. 15, said the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) sought the review of over 1,500 incidents of violations of International Humanitarian Law (IHL) committed by communist terrorist groups.
Guevarra said the incidents are currently being reviewed by the Administrative Order 35 (AO35) Inter-Agency Committee on Extra-Legal Killings, Enforced Disappearances, Torture and Other Grave Violations of the Right to Life, Liberty and Security of Persons.
“These cases have just been recently endorsed to the AO 35 committee by the AFP,” said Guevarra who is the chairman of the committee.
He said the committee will soon provide more details of these cases including the dates these took place.
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.”
Over the weekend, the AO35 Secretariat posted in its official Facebook page that a technical working group is currently “reviewing more than 1,500 incidents of probable violations of IHL allegedly committed by communist terrorist groups.”
Its post also stated: “The review is being conducted initially in the Visayas and Bicol regions where many of the violations were committed.”
The other members of the committee are the chairperson of the Presidential Human Rights Committee (PHRCP), secretary of the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG), secretary of the Department of National Defense (DND), and the Presidential Adviser for Political Affairs (PAPA).