EU mission visits AFP to assess its needs in investigating human rights violation cases

By Ronron
June 22, 2007

The technical mission from the European Union that seeks to assess the Philippine government’s capability to probe and solve human rights violation cases visited on Friday the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) as part of its itinerary.

AFP Deputy Public Information Officer Capt. Ramon Zagala said the delegation, composed of three officials from the European Commission and one expert each from Sweden, Finland, Britain, Spain, Germany and Italy, received a briefing from the AFP Human Rights Office chief, Lt. Col. Benedicto Jose.

“They were briefed on the Armed Forces disposition, our mission, and on the human rights officer, about our training, how do we train our personnel on human rights,” Zagala told Camp Aguinaldo reporters yesterday afternoon.

In a phone interview, Jose said that after giving a briefing, he later conveyed to the delegates his request for assistance “in terms of investigation and forensic.”

“We requested for some equipment and training for our investigators. We also requested for scholarship grants for AFP personnel so they can teach here on human rights issue,” Jose said.

The EU mission began its work last Monday, with a primary objective on analyzing the country’s capability to handle human rights cases so it will know what form of technical assistance will it extend.

The United States government has already started providing training and seminars to members of the Philippine National Police (PNP) and the Department of Justice (DOJ) as far as investigating human rights cases, particularly extrajudicial killings, following the spate of said incidents in the country over the last few years.

Zagala said the EU delegation was received by Maj. Gen. Pedrito Cadungog, the AFP Deputy Chief of Staff, in the absence of AFP chief of staff Gen. Hermogenes Esperon, Jr., who is on an official mission outside of Metro Manila.

During the briefing, Zagala said the AFP officials told the delegates that in cases involving officers and soldiers, the AFP has the policy of subjecting them to investigation.

“We told them we open our personnel who are charged with these killings in courts (to probe) and that it is their personal responsibility already if they are charged in civilian courts,” Zagala said.

He said the AFP closely coordinates with the PNP for these investigations.

Jose said that if the capability of the AFP Human Rights office to investigate cases is improved through the technical assistance from the EU, “we can solve human rights cases.”

“It will improve the Human Rights Office and the AFP as a whole. And there will be better coordination between the AFP, the PNP and the DOJ,” Jose said.

The AFP is the usual suspect of militant groups for every incident of alleged human rights violation, especially extrajudicial killings and forced disappearances.

But the AFP pointed out that while it has a few soldiers implicated in some cases, it does not have a policy to carry out extrajudicial killings and forced disappearances.

The Philippine government was criticized by international organizations for failing to address the problem.

Yesterday’s meeting between the AFP and the EU Mission lasted for two-and-a-half hours./DMS