Human rights groups and progressive organizations reiterated their call for an impartial probe and renewed their demand for justice for the victims of state-sponsored killings in Negros under Duterte regime during a Department of Justice Inter-Agency Committee on EJK and Enforced Disappearance case conference at Acacia Hotel in Bacolod City Tuesday, October 25.
Pepito Pico, chair of Human Rights Advocates-Negros, said in a statement that there were 109 extrajudicial killings during the Duterte administration, with 39 cases coming from Negros Occidental and 70 from Negros Oriental.
What the police and the DOJ have done was to merely record the gruesome murders and worst, harassed the families and friends of the victims, he claimed.
Among the notable victims of these state-sponsored killings in Negros Occidental were lawyer Benjamin Ramos Jr. in November 2018, Bernardino Patigas in April 2019, and Zara Alvarez in August 2020.
The inter-agency Committee should also look into the cases of death threats of human rights defenders in Negros Island like Noli Rosales, Erineo Longinos, Butch Lozande and Felipe Gelle and trumped up charges against activist and leaders of farmers and farmworkers organizations, he also said.
He stressed that the committee must not be a tool of repression by any sitting president so that trust in the justice system will emerge.*