18 November 2009

CHR ON DEMOLITION AT ROXAS BLVD. SETTLEMENT:
POLICE ESCORTS CANNOT USE FIREARMS

The Commission on Human Rights’ Non-government Organization, Civil Society and Media Cooperation Office (CHR-NCSMCO) had been monitoring live media reports on the demolition operations conducted at an informal settlement at a Mosque in the vicinity of Roxas Blvd.

Based on media reports, police operatives not only carried firearms, but discharged the same during the course of the demolition. Media outfits reported that “Florencio San Mateo, chief of the Pasay Traffic and Parking Management, admitted to the Inquirer that they had to fire a gun, which wounded a protester, because around 50 settlers were armed with a sumpak or an improvised gun, explosives that looked like molotov bombs, bottles and stones”.

There have been unverified claims that there had been fatalities among the members of the Muslim community. The Philippine Daily Inquirer reported that Senior Superintendent Raul Petrasanta disputed the claims, saying the police who accompanied the demolition team, fired warning shots but did not aim their guns at any of the protesters.

Reacting to the incident, the CHR Chairperson Leila M. De Lima remarked, “The use of firearms is strictly prohibited during demolition operations. The PNP has no justification for the discharge of firearms, whether for the purpose of firing warning shots, disabling or killing protesters.”

De Lima cited Rule 19, Sec. 2 of the Manual for PNP Operational Procedures, which states that:

d. All personnel involved shall be in complete uniform and shall desist from the use of any violence or any actuation that may harm, harass, or terrorize the affected parties.
e. The mode of participation shall be strictly to maintain peace and order during the entire demolition/ejectment activity, ensuring the protection of all parties from harm and injury.
f. The deployment of tear gas and water cannon shall be applied only as a last resort, when all other peaceful and non-violent means have been exhausted, and shall be made under proper advice and command of a responsible or superior police officer.

“Given that only non-lethal modes of violent intervention are allowed, such as tear gas and water cannons, and only as a last resort, clearly the PNP, by its own rules, cannot use firearms in demolitions,” De Lima continued. “I cannot understand what justification the PNP may have in using their firearms for warning shots. Neither can I understand the necessity of firing their weapons to injure protesters, armed or otherwise.”

The same manual provides, under Rule 5, General Procedures that “[t]he police shall not use warning shots during any police intervention.”

“Time and again, we have reminded the PNP to adhere strictly to their rules of procedure, which ultimately are designed to protect human rights,” De Lima said. “It is frustrating to hear that the police superiors themselves openly admit that their personnel violate their own rules.”

The CHR will conduct its own investigation on this incident through its NCR-Investigation Office. “In anticipating a protracted governmental campaign to evict possibly millions of informal settlers, in light of the Supreme Court decision on the Manila Bay case and recent overtures in relation to flooding in the metropolis, we have to ensure that incidents hereafter are conducted strictly within human rights parameters,” De Lima said. “We must set precedents that are worth emulating in future demolition operations – and there will be many more that must be conducted. If we do not succeed this early in convincing citizens that we follow the law on forced evictions, then the local governments and other governmental agencies will meet ever-stiffening resistance from informal settler communities, making the objective of a more habitable metropolis unreachable.”

On the explosion of violence that attended today’s demolition operations, De Lima lamented, “While we condemn the PNP’s use of firearms, we cannot turn a blind eye to reports that the inhabitants of the demolished community used homemade firearms and explosive devices, in addition to throwing stones at demolition operatives. No one should take the law into their own hands, and no one should resort to criminal means in the guise of protecting their rights.”

De Lima called on the PNP to properly document and identify those who may have used firearms, both from their own ranks and from the demolished community.