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Gov’t to equip peace workers sent for fact finding missions

Written by anyajulia on 13 October 2008

HONING further the skills of the local monitoring board (LMB) teams investigating alleged human rights abuses and violations committed by government forces and the communist rebels, the government sends in experts to train local peace workers in fact-finding missions.

The seminar workshop on fact-finding set October 14, 2008 at the Bohol Plaza Resort, gathers members of the Bohol Local Monitoring Board (LMB-Bohol) and other individuals involved in fact finding missions sent by the Provincial Peace and Order Council (PPOC) to gather information on alleged human rights abuses.

The workshop supported by the Government of the Republic of the Philippines (GRP) Monitoring Committee is aimed at equipping local peace workers with the appropriate tools in fact finding missions.

As a special support arm of the PPOC and LMB Bohol, teams conduct fact finding missions on alleged human rights abuses and has become a regular PPOC activity since 2001 until it became instituted in 2004, says LMB member and Philippine Information Agency’s Yvette Bede Matabalan.

The workshop would be handled by resource persons from the Philippine Alliance of Human rights Advocates and the Commission on Human Rights national legal and investigative office, she added.

Bohol’s fact finding missions on alleged human rights abuses has been recognized as laudable by the Office of the Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process (OPAPP), the GRP Peace Panel, the Armed Forces of the Philippines and other government and non-government organizations.

Even the church leaders see the fact finding missions as a strategy in addressing alleged human rights abuses or violations by both government forces and the communist insurgents, said Romeo Teruel, Bohol PPOC fact finding team leader.

The GRP and the Communist Party of the Philippines New People’s Army of the National Democratic Front (CPP/NPA-NDF) initially agreed to the protocols of the comprehensive agreement on the respect for human rights and the international humanitarian law and, as signatories, both must operate within the same limitations, another PPOC member said.

The PPOC fact finding team has investigated the involvement and victimization of civilians in armed encounters between the military and rebel groups, alleged extra legal and extra judicial killings, human rights violations committed by soldiers and policemen since its creation in 2001.

Governor Erico Aumentado sits as the chairperson for LMB Bohol. (PIA/rachiu)

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