9th Infantry Division shows perfect example on how to endanger civilians’ lives (photos)

Karapatan Bikol releases these photos taken during a Fact-Finding Mission in Labo, Camarines Norte on May 2012. The said FFM aimed to expose glaring violations of the International Humanitarian Law committed by the 9^th ID’s 49^th Infantry Battalion. In occupying civilian establishments (such as barangay halls, public schools, chapels, and day care centers) to serve as their barracks, 49^th IB soldiers clearly put the lives of the villagers in danger. In essence, civilians are exploited as human shields in the Armed Forces of the Philippines’ war against the New People’s Army.

And as if shoving civilians in the line of fire isn’t enough, inside these barangay halls and other civilian establishments are where detestable human rights violations are further carried out by government soldiers. In the name of Oplan Bayanihan, torture and intimidation, harassment and coercion, and other cruelties are a regular dread inside the very structures the villagers once regarded as places of barrio fellowships. This has been the case in Labo and Jose Panganiban towns since February 2012.

A year into 49^th IB’s attack on the rights of Camarines Norte’s people, no less than 477 cases of human rights violations in the province have been recorded by Karapatan-Bikol. Most striking of which are the massacre of the Mancera family on February 25, 2012, and the killing of Brgy Malaya’s village chief, Kapitana Merlyn Bermas on August 7 of the same year.