A supposedly protected individual has been missing for three years.
MANILA — The Southern Mindanao chapter of human rights group Karapatan repeated its demand to surface the forcibly disappeared peace consultant in Bukidnon.
Ariel Badiang, a peace consultant of the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP), was reportedly abducted by elements of the Armed Forces of the Philippines Eastern Mindanao command on February 6, 2023 in Manolo Fortich, Bukidnon.
“The AFP and the Philippine National Police (PNP) continue to deny any knowledge as to Badiang’s whereabouts,” said Karapatan Southern Mindanao, calling on the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and the Commission on Human Rights (CHR) to probe violations of international humanitarian law (IHL).
The IHL, also known as the rules of war, should protect civilians at all costs in times of armed conflict. Such hostilities against peace consultants may constitute a violation of the rules.
The Philippine government ratified the Geneva Conventions and criminalizes violations of the IHL under the Philippine Act on Crimes Against International Humanitarian Law, Genocide, and Other Crimes Against Humanity. However, there had been peace consultants subjected to extrajudicial killings, enforced disappearance, torture, and filing of trumped-up charges.
Read: What happened since the collapse of peace talks under Duterte
In 2023, CHR Region 10 conducted a quick response operation to probe Badiang’s enforced disappearance. The human rights investigators went to the camp of 1st Special Forces Battalion of the Philippine Army at Mampayag, Manolo Fortich but they were informed that no incident of arrest, apprehension, or encounter happened on February 6, 2023.
Moreover, under the Joint Agreement on Safety and Immunity Guarantees (JASIG) signed by the Philippine government and the NDFP in 1995, peace consultants should be protected.
“As used and understood in this Joint Agreement, immunity guarantees shall mean that all duly accredited persons are guaranteed immunity from surveillance, harassment, search, arrest, detention, prosecution and interrogation or any other similar punitive actions due to any involvement or participation in the peace negotiations,” the document read.
Karapatan – Southern Mindanao said that despite the signing of the peace document, consultants like Badiang and Leo Velasco, Prudencio Calubid, and Philip Limjoco became victims of enforced disappearance.
CHR Region 10 said that Badiang has pending arrest warrants for two counts of attempted murder charges issued by a court in Agusan del Sur and Davao de Oro. Such charges may be violations of the protections under JASIG.
“We denounce the terror tactics and repression of the US-Marcos regime, designed to quell people’s resistance,” the group said. “Karapatan-SMR continues the call for the surfacing of all victims of enforced disappearance, and for justice for all victims of state violence.”
The International Coalition Against Enforced Disappearance (ICAED) said that impunity continues to prevail in the country, as not a single perpetrator has been prosecuted in cases of enforced disappearance. Of the more than 2,000 cases recorded since the Martial Law period, not one has been held accountable, even with the enactment of the Anti-Enforced Disappearance Law of 2012.
The Philippine government has not yet ratified the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance. (AMU, DAA)
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