Ermita as Head of HR Committee to UN — What an Insult, Says NDF

The chairman of the National Democratic Front of the Philippines
(NDFP) Human Rights Monitoring Committee Fidel V. Agcaoili today
expressed outrage over the appointment of Executive Secretary Eduardo
Ermita as head of the GRP 44-team delegation to the United Nations
Human Rights Council (UNHRC) Universal Periodic Review (UPR) on April
11.

Agcaoili said that Ermita’s record as the US pointguard and the GRP’s
mastermind orchestrating the gross and systematic campaign of human
rights violations and political repression is a vicious insult and
attack against the victims of human rights violations and their
families.

“Ermita’s appointment as delegation head speaks volumes about the
GRP’s contempt for the Universal Periodic Review and the UN Human
Rights Council as well as the desperation of the GRP in trying to
cover-up its bloody human rights record. The rascal is a notorious
human rights violator and a psy-war expert. The GRP intends to
bamboozle the UNHRC utilizing Ermita’s notorious psywar expertise, and
all efforts must be made to expose this,” he said.

“What business does a notorious human rights violator, the chief
butcher of Arroyo, have speaking on human rights and to the UNHRC no
less? His upcoming report to the UNHRC can only consist of lies
regarding how the killings have stopped through the government’s
supposed efforts. The fact is that the Arroyo regime has temporarily
reduced the killings because of the people’s outrage all over the
world. It is clear that no military, police officer or killer asset
of the regime has been convicted for any of the killings.”

Agcaoili pointed out that being the chairman of the Anti-Terrorist
Council of the Macapagal-Arroyo regime, Ermita stands only next to the
bogus president as the one most responsible for implementing Oplan
Bantay Laya I and II.

“He is also chairman of the Presidential Human Rights Committee which
has done nothing but white-wash the atrocities of the regime. He
heads the Internal Security Cluster of the Cabinet, the head of the
Presidential Anti-Terrorism Task Force. His past is as checkered as
his current career: he was with the Philippine Civil Action Group in
Vietnam, coordinating with the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) in
implementing Operation Phoenix.

“He was also head of civil-military relations during the time of the
dictator Ferdinand Marcos and became deputy Chief of Staff for
Operations of the AFP during the Aquino regime. This was a period when
lawyers and congressional candidates of Partido ng Bayan were
assassinated in the same pattern as the extrajudicial killings are
being carried out today. He is the original organizer of hooded
motorcycle-riding murderers who victimize legal activists,” he
asserted.

Agcaoili said that Ermita’s appointment as delegation head exposes the
cruel and callous character of the Arroyo regime. “This is a grave
insult and attack against the victims and their families. Ermita’s
mission to the UPR is clear: as head butcher of the Arroyo regime, he
will deny the regime’s command responsibility and direct criminal
culpability for the extrajudicial killings and lobby for the
Philippines’ continued inclusion in the UNCHR. His appointment as
head of the GRP delegation to the UPR makes a complete mockery of the
process of the review,” he concluded.

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