Hontiveros files reso seeking to investigate Negros Oriental killings

“The killings in the Negros region is an easy and chilling example of the violence against civilians that has flourished under the culture of impunity and lawless violence in the country. It has made the Philippines the fourth most dangerous country in the world for civilians,” Hontiveros said. (File photo: Senator Risa Hontiveros/Facebook)

Opposition Senator Risa Hontiveros filed a resolution seeking a Senate inquiry into the recent spate of killings in Negros Oriental to give justice to slain victims.

In Senate Resolution No, 47, Hontiveros urged the Senate committees on public order and dangerous drugs and justice to conduct an investigation into the killings and circumstances that “allowed for the lawless violence that cloaked the province.”

Since January 2017, the senator said the island of Negros has been the “last resting place” of 83 victims of extrajudicial killings. Among them, 34 were killed this year alone, with 16 murdered just last week.

Majority of the victims, she added, were civilians, farmers, and union leaders who were tagged as members of the New People’s Army (NPA), but only two were confirmed as rebels.

“The killings in the Negros region is an easy and chilling example of the violence against civilians that has flourished under the culture of impunity and lawless violence in the country. It has made the Philippines the fourth most dangerous country in the world for civilians,” Hontiveros said.

The latest in the series of violence in Negros Oriental was the killings of a former mayor and his cousin, a councilor, and a village chief last July 27.

Presidential Spokesperson Salvador Panelo on Thursday said President Rodrigo Duterte wants to stop the killings in the province and the only way for him to do that is to use his emergency powers. Asked which emergency powers Duterte would use, Panelo said, “He can call the Armed Forces to quell lawless violence, he can declare martial law.”

Should the security officials recommend the declaration of martial law in the area, Panelo said the President would “certainly” follow it.

“He always follows the advice of those people in the know,” he said.