Unmask Marcos For Hypocritical, Deceitful Posturing On International Humanitarian Law

From August 11 - 14, the Philippine government led by President Ferdinand Marcos Jr hosted the largest IHL Conference to date in the Asia-Pacific region– attended by 120 participants from 30 countries across the region. From the outset, the conference was riddled with lies. The theme –“Galvanizing Commitment to International Humanitarian Law”– is a sham, the Philippine government has instead been galvanizing state terrorism in Indigenous Peoples and peasant communities across the country and its commitment to its landlord and foreign masters to quell people’s resistance.

In August alone, Indigenous communities received the state’s most brutal offensives. In Tagkawayan, Quezon peasant and Indigenous Manide communities have been sowed with fear and trauma as the 16th Infantry Battalion of the Armed Forces of the Philippines showered communities with strafing operations and aerial bombardments after an alleged encounter with the New People’s Army (NPA), the armed wing of the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP).

In Occidental Mindoro, civilian facilities have been turned into garrisons as military operations continue on the island, and the civilian government unflinchingly bowing to military authority. On August 1, Maranao farmer Juan Sumilhig was brutally murdered by members of the 4th Infantry Battalion of the Philippine Army (IBPA) and passed off as an NPA rebel killed in an encounter.

The blurring of lines between civilians and combatants, indiscriminate strafing and aerial bombardments with no clear target are clear violations of International Humanitarian Law. The Philippine government is now on a murder-spree shooting anyone in sight and dropping bombs wherever they feel convenient.

Furthermore, human rights organizations seeking to provide relief and humanitarian aid are barred from entering affected civilian communities, Indigenous Peoples and farmers are blocked off from copra farming. It seems as if bombs and bullets are not enough, the Philippine government is also looking into starving its own people to death.

Marcos’ National Action Plan on Unity, Peace and Development (NAP-UPD) wraps itself in flowery rhetoric when in reality it is toeing the same failed line as previous counterinsurgency programs while escalating in brutality– still riddled with IHL violations, starvation, land-grabs, and corruption.

The Marcos government is posturing itself as a champion of human rights that it routinely violates. This government is not fit to speak on IHL– much less host a regional conference on it. Shooting at will, bombing at whim is not galvanizing commitment to IHL– it’s state terrorism.

The International Indigenous Peoples Movement for Self-Determination & Liberation joins the Filipino people in condemnation and utter disgust in the blatant deceit of the Marcos government. Likewise we urge our Indigenous brothers and sisters across the Asia-Pacific region and the world to be vigilant and challenge governments to sincerely uphold International Humanitarian Law and genuinely address the question of armed conflict and its roots.#

Reference:
International Indigenous Peoples Movement for Self-Determination & Liberation
info@ipmsdl.org

© Scoop Media