Arroyo officials should also be held accountable for Ampatuan massacre: CHR’s de Lima

COMMISSION ON HUMAN RIGHTS

PRESS STATEMENT

28 November 2009

CHR ON EXECUTIVE ACTION ON THE MAGUINDANAO MASSACRE:

EXERCISE ALL INTERVENTIONS NOW!

On 26 November 2009, Datu Unsay Mayor Andal Ampatuan, Jr. was finally arrested as the prime suspect responsible for more than 60 murders carried out last Monday, November 23. His arrest comes days after the murders amidst growing public demand for immediate and decisive governmental action to hold accountable the killers and masterminds.

The arrest of Ampatuan, Jr., raises more questions about what seems to be an overly cautious response by the Executive Department. “There are many options available to the Executive,” CHR Chairperson De Lima said. “The arrest as the first of many interventions had, as many perceived, come rather slowly and we hope that the focus on filing murder charges against Ampatuan, Jr. does not remove attention from the other accountabilities of the government which must be addressed.”

The most glaring omission, to date, is action upon the fact that the local officials, particularly Governor Andal Ampatuan, Sr., and ARMM Regional Governor Zaldy Ampatuan remained silent when news of the massacre had leaked out. As the local chief executives, they should have initiated the first interventions given that the killings occurred within their jurisdiction. The silence and inaction of the governor, together with the rest of the local officials and police, suggest complicity, if not implicitly condoning the crime. The Ampatuans in their role as regional governor, governor and mayor, failed to order the immediate investigation of the incident, failed to address the public outrage to dispel allegations and categorically deny their involvement in the killings.

The local governments within the Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) are undoubtedly under the general supervision of President. “For the Governor’s omission to immediately investigate the killings,” De Lima said, “the President can at the very least demand an explanation.”

Moreover, the verified fact that heavy excavation machinery (a backhoe) owned by the Province of Maguindanao was found at the scene of the carnage and apparently used to dig the mass graves, gives impetus for the President, by herself or through the Department of Interior and Local Government (CIDG), to demand an explanation from the governor. How public property could have been used to conceal such brutal and heinous acts requires an immediate explanation from the local government.

“We have yet to see the Executive Department explore and apply the remedies of administrative complaints and preventive suspension under the Local Government Code against Governor Ampatuan and various local officials,” De Lima continued. “There are several actors who must be held accountable for the massacre and the aftermath of it. This must not be lost in fever-pitch focus on the filing of criminal charges against the alleged mastermind, Mayor Ampatuan, Jr. Everyone who directly or indirectly took part in the massacre, including local officials and the police, must be subjected to every remedy under the law.”

“There are many more who had directly taken part in the killings, and they remain at large,” De Lima said. “But it must be noted that many of the perpetrators are subservient to the local political clan. While arrests must certainly be more numerous than what we have at the moment, there are other very important figures whose heads must roll.”

“In the meantime, there are interim measures, such as preventive suspension, that can dislodge the same local officials who had not acted expeditiously and in upstanding fashion after the massacre,” De Lima noted. “We need to ensure that the apparent inability of the local government to address the murders does not lead to an atmosphere prejudicial to the conduct of a proper investigation. We need to remove from power all those who are seen to be subordinate to local political influence and not the rule of law, and we must do this now.”

“We are encouraged and heartened by the President’s marching orders of ‘no let-up’ in the ongoing investigation, notwithstanding that a political ally of the current administration is at the center of the controversy.” De Lima remarked, “And such stance should engulf an appropriate action – a swift suspension. It is not enough that Ampatuan, Jr. had been arrested. His arrest should pave the way for the application by the Executive of apt measures such as the filing of administrative complaints and preventive suspensions.”

The CHR Chairperson, in a dialogue with public interest lawyers and human rights defenders yesterday, November 27, in Cagayan De Oro City on the occasion of the 3rd Mindanao Assembly of People’s Lawyers sponsored by the Union of Peoples’ Lawyers in Mindanao (slain lady lawyers, Attys. Connie Brizuela and Cynthia Oquendo, were part of this organization), adopted the position that authorities must use other, less obvious interventions to address the murders in Maguindanao. “There are other interventions that must be urgently explored given the gravity of the crime committed and the breadth of the list of culpable persons,” De Lima said. “Apart from administrative charges, preventive suspensions, and criminal prosecutions, the CHR proposes both the creation of an ad hoc, independent investigative commission and a more creative but yet unexplored use of the Rules on the Writ of Amparo.”

On the creation of an investigative commission, De Lima explained, “Maguindanao is mired in an atmosphere of impunity, the causes of which are not only traceable to the proliferation of warlords and private armies, but to systemic neglect by national authorities to control these private armies and their patrons. Instead of local politicians adhering to the principles of local autonomy under the parameters of the Constitution and the law, the same politicians become absolute sovereigns who give no regard to any law. But this would not have been possible in the first place if the national government had been vigilant in squelching wayward local politicians. Simply put, there are national officials who must be held accountable, perhaps not directly for the murders last Monday, but for allowing warlordism to fester in Maguindanao and elsewhere.”

De Lima continued, “This independent commission can be composed of legal luminaries, former justices or jurists, members of the academe, NGOs engaged in the advocacy against violence and the like. The outstanding characteristic of this proposed commission must be that it is independent and insulated from political coercion.”

On the use of the Rule on the Writ of Amparo, De Lima said, “We can apply for the protections allowed under the Writ of Amparo for the purpose of protecting journalists, investigators and witnesses involved in the aftermath of the Maguindanao Massacre. We shall explore the possibility of employing it to banish, at least temporarily, the Ampatuans and others whose continued presence in Maguindanao and nearby areas poses a danger to those who may be instrumental in obtaining justice for those murdered.”

De Lima continued, “Although the Rules on the Writ of Amparo have been used almost exclusively in cases of alleged killings and abductions perpetrated by State security forces, nothing suggests that they may not be used to secure the safety of journalists, investigators and witnesses involved in the Maguindanao Massacre.”

The CHR is preparing to consult with legal experts on the proposed ad hoc commission and the employ of the Writ of Amparo in relation to the resolution of the Maguindanao Massacre.