CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY (Mindanao Examiner / Apr. 28, 2013) – A Filipino human rights group has criticized the Aquino government for putting a controversial army general to head an infantry division in the southern Philippines.
The human rights group Karapatan deplored the recent assignment of Brig. Gen. Ricardo Visaya to the 4th Infantry Division in northern Mindanao, saying he left a trail of human rights violations wherever he was assigned.
“The installation of Visaya reveals the intent of the Armed Forces of the Philippines to heighten attacks against people’s rights, especially in Mindanao. Brig. Gen. Visaya was among retired Maj. Gen. Jovito Palparan’s cohorts when the military’s terror reigned in Central Luzon through (President) Gloria Arroyo’s Oplan Bantay Laya. He was former commanding general of the 69th Infantry Battalion responsible for the Hacienda Luisita massacre in November 2004,” Cristina Palabay, Secretary General of Karapatan, said in a statement sent to the regional newspaper Mindanao Examiner.
Palabay linked Visaya to the abduction and torture of farmers Raymond and Reynaldo Manalo in February 2006. The brothers escaped after more than two years in captivity and are now principal witnesses to the alleged abduction, torture and rape of UP students Sherlyn Cadapan and Karen Empeño.
She said Visaya’s battalion was among other military units under Palparan’s 7th Infantry Division.
She said the deployment of Visaya’s Civil Military Operation Battalion in Metro Manila communities from February to September 2007 resulted to numerous cases of threats, harassment and intimidation especially among members and leaders of progressive organizations, as well as partisan campaigning against progressive party list organizations and recruitment of intelligence agents among the people.
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