“The escalation of “salvagings” coincided with the deployment of Major General Jovito Palparan in September of 2005.”

This was one of the major conclusions of the Fact Finding Mission of fourteen organisations in the Central Luzon provinces of the Philippines during April this year. The mission organised by the Citizens’ Council for Human Rights (CCHR) and the Kilusan para sa Pambansang Demokrasya (Movement for National Democracy) investigated the sudden increase of incidents of politically motivated assassinations, extra-judicial killings and enforced disappearances in Central Luzon, where Major General Jovito Palparan’s 7th Infantry Division (7th ID-Philippine Army) operates.“The escalation of “salvagings” coincided with the deployment of Major General Jovito Palparan in September of 2005.”

This was one of the major conclusions of the Fact Finding Mission of fourteen organisations in the Central Luzon provinces of the Philippines during April this year. The mission organised by the Citizens’ Council for Human Rights (CCHR) and the Kilusan para sa Pambansang Demokrasya (Movement for National Democracy) investigated the sudden increase of incidents of politically motivated assassinations, extra-judicial killings and enforced disappearances in Central Luzon, where Major General Jovito Palparan’s 7th Infantry Division (7th ID-Philippine Army) operates.

The fact finding report noted a chilling record of an average of three extra-judicial killings per week from September 2005 to February 2006, with one case of three simultaneous political killings in Bulacan, Pampanga and Nueva Ecija provinces on the same day of 26 October 2005.

The mission observed that “The military situation in Central Luzon underwent changes that turned more frightening and terrifying to the people. The people have never been so terrorised until Major Palparan assumed command of the 7th ID-PA”.

Palparan gained notoriety in September 2005 when he publicly vowed to wipe out insurgency in his “area of responsibility” by 2010. In the wake of this pronouncement lie over fifty dead and missing human rights defenders as of February 2006.

“Salvagings” was a term coined during the 1970s’ martial law period referring to extra-judicial killings, where political activists’ bodies were literally “salvaged” from where they were killed and dumped, usually in garbage sites outside the city. There are now over 700 victims of extra-judicial killings nationwide.

Another growing trend is enforced disappearances. Recently the Supreme Court gave due course to a petition for a Writ of Habeas Corpus and asked Palparan to produce two missing female students from the University of the Philippines. The Major General continues to defy the Court’s orders by insisting he did not have custody of the two.

The report highlighted three cases of “salvagings”, one attempted “salvaging”, one enforced disappearance and four cases of harassment. The mission called for the immediate pull-out of army detachments and military elements in the affected areas, the dismantling of paramilitary groups and the filing of charges against suspected perpetrators.

Read the full report here. (.pdf 24pp.)

More on Philippine human rights situation on the website of the Philippine Alliance of Human Rights Advocates at www.philippinehumanrights.org.