QUINAPONDAN, Eastern Samar - Central Command chief Lt. Gen. Pedro “Ike” Inserto has assured yesterday the six mayors of Eastern Samar that human rights abuses as reported by MacArthur mayor Jaime Ty must immediately be stopped in the province while urging the mayors to bring the matter to the court if evidence warrants.
This was the immediate response of Gen. Inserto during the forum before local officials of this town and the town mayors of Mac Arthur, Lawaan, Giporlos, Guiuan and Hernani in the presence of top officials of the Army’s 62nd IB based in Quinapondan relating to the reported mass evacuation of residents of 16 barangays due to alleged human rights abuses perpetrated by the military in the hinter lands of MacArthur town.
In his complaint, Mayor Ty said many of those villagers were forced to flee from their barangays because of “fear” and are afraid to talk when asked by the military information about the NPA underground movement in the areas.
“I am appealing to the top leadership of the Philippine Army in the Visayas to tell his men not to ask innocent people and force to reveal wrong information about the activities of the NPAs and do it in a sensible way nag-evacuate sila dahil takot sa sundalo. Some were blind folded and tortured,” Mayor Ty said.
Inserto immediately called the attention of Col. Jonathan Ponce to verify the report and assured the mayor that if any human rights abuses was committed in the area it would immediately be addressed.
“I told my troops in the field never to abduct, torture and do similar harassments because we cannot win this war by doing these things,” Inserto added.
During this occasion, Mayor Ty denied his accusation about alleged military abuses but explained that it was only an over reaction to what the military is currently doing in tracking down NPA rebels in the hinterlands of MacArthur.
As reported by Col. Ponce, seven big NPA camps were dismantled in MacArthur recently and reiterated his earlier statement that no such mass evacuation occurred in MacArthur, as claimed by the mayor.
It was reiterated by Inserto that without the support of the stakeholders such as the LGUs, the media, clergy and all other sector in society winning this anti-insurgency campaign would always be a failure.
It was stressed that the close to 40 years communist rebellion in the country is caused by a wrong tactics in winning the hearts of the people.
“Dati kasi banat ng banat lang kami wala kaming pakialam sa mga tao na sila pala ang may malaking tulong to end up this problem,” Inserto stressed.
