Int’l group: Noynoy, Villar ‘not firm’ vs. private armies

(Updated 10:25 p.m.) The two leading presidential candidates for the May polls — Senators Benigno Aquino III and Manuel Villar Jr. — are both noncommittal about dismantling private armies in the country, an international human rights group said on Saturday. Human Rights Watch executive director Kenneth Roth said he did not get a “firm commitment" to end the country’s “reliance" on paramilitary forces when he spoke to both presidential aspirants recently. “They kind of accepted this [role of paramilitary forces] as a necessary evil. I think that is a mistake. When the evil involves predictable widespread political killing, that is not acceptable," he said in a press briefing in Makati City on Saturday. The issue of private armies rose to national attention after paramilitary forces were allegedly used in the November 23 Maguindanao massacre, where nearly 60 people were killed. The Human Rights Watch is an international non-governmental organization which conducts research in 90 countries around the world. According to the Human Rights Watch website, the group evaluates the situation of human rights in these countries and suggests policy changes to try to solve violations of human rights. 'Extraordinarily narrow' Roth described Aquino’s understanding of private armies as “extraordinarily narrow," which made the Liberal Party standard-bearer “unwilling to address the root causes" of the country’s problem on paramilitary forces. “When we asked him whether his vow to rid the country of private armies meant that he was going to end reliance on civilian volunteer organizations and police auxiliary units, which were the actual paramilitary units that were used in the Maguindanao massacre, he said no. Those are all force multipliers in his view," he said. He added that this “narrow" understanding of the problem makes Aquino’s promises to rid the country of private armies just “platitudes." “We spoke to Aquino earlier this week just after he gave a briefing on his security policy. In his briefing, he waxed eloquently about his desire to rid the country of private armies. He repeated this a number of times… Unfortunately, he was just playing word games," Roth said. Villar also ‘unsure’ Villar, meanwhile, did not promise to end private armies in the country, and was “unsure" whether he can take steps to solve this problem due to “budgetary constraints," according to Roth. “He [Villar] said that he understands the problem of these paramilitary forces. He understands that the long-term solution is to insist that it’s only the Army and the police that have responsibility of providing security to the Filipino people. But he didn’t feel that he can move there quickly because of budgetary constraints," he said. Roth added that Villar would rather solve issues on healthcare, education and infrastructure before addressing the problem on paramilitary forces. “The problem is that it basically means that he will continue to rely on these forces that have been responsible for this long-standing pattern of murder," he said. Roth said he also spoke with former President Joseph Estrada’s spokesperson on the issue, but the Estrada camp “did not have much to say" on the issue. Administration party standard-bearer Gilberto Teodoro Jr. meanwhile turned down the invitation to discuss the problem on private armies due to his “busy" schedule, Roth said. ’Unfair’ Aquino’s camp, for its part, said it was “unfair" for Human Rights Watch to make such statements on the LP presidential aspirant’s stand on private armies and paramilitary forces, since Roth talked with Aquino for a very short time. “Senator Aquino has been so clear on dismantling private armies. It was unfair for Roth to be making such judgments when he just talked with Senator Aquino while going down the elevator," LP campaign manager Butch Abad told GMANews.TV in a phone interview on Saturday night. Abad said Aquino even urged Roth and his group to write down their concerns and send them to the LP camp so they can adequately answer the human rights group’s questions. Nacionalista Party (NP) spokesperson Gilbert Remulla, on the other hand, declined to comment on Roth’s assessments until they have gotten more information on his statements. Remulla said the NP camp will just issue a formal statement on the issue in the coming days. Arroyo 'invested in private armies' Roth also accused the government of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo of “investing in private armies" to hold on to power. “Under the Arroyo administration, there is a tripling of the size of these private armies. This is not just a matter of tradition. She has actively invested in these forces," he said. He also criticized the rise of the incidents of extrajudicial killings and the “skyrocketing" of death-squad killings during Arroyo’s nine years in Malacanang. Roth said he hopes the next president of the country will prioritize the dismantling private armies to prevent another incident similar to the Maguindanao massacre. “What we hope is that the new president understands that this is a huge problem and that this should be something that should be tackled as a matter of priority," he said.—JV, GMANews.TV