In the light of the Melo Commission Report, House Minority Leader Francis “Chiz” Escudero called on newly appointed Defense Secretary Hermogenes Ebdane Jr. to stop the killings and other violations of human rights placed at the doorstep of the Armed Forces of the Philippines.
The Commission held retired M/Gen. Jovito Palparan and certain military officials responsible for the extrajudicial executions during their tours of duty under the principle of command responsibility.
“I refuse to be drawn into the controversy as to whether the officer in command could be held responsible under the principle, but the fact remains that the military leadership needs to send a strong message that these criminal acts have no place in a civilized society,” Escudero said.
Asked to comment on allegations that Ebdane had a role in the cheating in the last elections, the congressman said it would be pointless for him to add his voice to the storm of criticism that attended the appointment. He said the appointment is already an accomplished fact.
“But Ebdane should be able to redeem himself, and the best way to do that is to keep the military out of partisan politics in the coming mid-term election,” he said. “The Filipino people would thank him for strengthening the democratic institutions in the country.”
The 37-year-old congressman from Sorsogon also urged the leadership to address other problems that plague the defense establishment.
“It is important that we look into the welfare of the ordinary soldier. If you remember military adventurers almost brought down the government several times in the past by riding on the grievances on the ground.”
He said there is something basically wrong when soldiers are sent out to run after the enemies of the state armed with assault rifles that malfunction.
“It is an outrage that soldiers should go into battle poorly clad and inadequately fed,” he said, “while the generals and their families drive around in flashy cars, purchase condominiums in New York, and maintain dollar accounts in foreign banks.
On the complaint that the AFP operates on a limited budget, Escudero said the real problem is in the skewed sense of priority adopted by the leadership.
“For instance,” the AFP should drop the idea of purchasing F16s or fighter planes,” he said. “For the kind of operation our soldiers are engaged in, the leadership might consider using its scarce resources to buy helicopters for troop deployment, to attack the enemy, and for medivac (medical evacuation) purposes.”
“I have been informed about cases of soldiers bleeding to death because of lack of air transport,” he said. “Now, that is absolutely unacceptable.”
No comments:
Post a Comment