The Commission on Human Rights (CHR) said Sunday incidents of lawless violence in Samar, Negros Occidental and the Bicol region need to be thoroughly investigated as it expressed caution against the government’s move to send more troops to those areas.
“Incidents of violence demand thorough investigation and expedient justice for the victims. This is the more immediate clamor that needs to be addressed to truly stop the cycle of violence,” CHR spokesperson Jacqueline de Guia said in statement.
The statement follows President Rodrigo Duterte’s order to deploy more troops to those provinces following incidents of “lawless violence and acts of terror.”
The CHR said the deployment of more troops might worsen violence instead of solving it, and that “increasing the presence of security forces might escalate tension and fuel fear in the community.”
“We urge the government to pursue development solutions rather than military approach to truly address the long standing problems that impact the basic rights and dignity of the people,” the commission said.
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Also on Sunday, Senator Panfilo Lacson said the President, as commander-in-chief of the Armed Forces, could have called for the deployment of more troops even without issuing a memorandum order.
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In an interview over radio dzBB, Lacson said troops from areas with no problems can be deployed to places that need them.
He added that he saw nothing wrong in Duterte calling on troops to address lawless violence.
Under the 1987 Constitution, he said the President, as commander-in-chief, may call out the Armed Forces of the Philippines to prevent or suppress lawless violence, rebellion or invasion covering the entire or any part of the country.
Memorandum Order 32 provides that the deployment of additional soldiers and policemen to suppress “lawless violence and acts of terror” in the provinces of Samar, Negros Oriental, Negros Occidental and the Bicol region and “prevent such violence from spreading and escalating elsewhere in the country.”
MO No. 32 also reinforced the guidelines under the state of national emergency, which Duterte declared in September 2016 on the ground of lawless violence, following a deadly bomb attack in Davao City.
The AFP declined to comment on the memorandum order, saying it needed to meet first with the Defense and the Interior and Local Government departments to hammer out how to carry out its provisions on the ground.
“We say we support MO 32’s intent primarily because to protect the people and secure the state is the AFP’s constitutional mandate,” AFP spokesman Brig. Gen. Edgard Arevalo said.
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