Gov't, communist rebels urged to support UN body's 90-day ‘humanitarian pause’

Bayan Muna party-list Representative Carlos Zarate on Wednesday called on the government and the communist rebels to support the plan of the United Nations (UN) Security Council to call for a 90-day "humanitarian pause" on worldwide conflicts amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

"Being a member country of the UN, the Duterte administration should readily support this call, especially that the country is still reeling from the grave effects of the covid19 crisis," Zarate said in a statement.

The National Democratic Front of the Philippines should likewise support this call as it previously followed the UN's call last month for a ceasefire among parties in conflict during the COVID-19 crisis, he added.

According to an Agence France-Presse report, the initial proposal in the UN Security Council by France and Tunisia was to have a 30-day pause as well as to call to end conflicts among countries and to increase international cooperation to combat the virus.

The proposal, however, was revised on Monday which now "calls upon all parties to armed conflicts to engage immediately in a durable humanitarian pause for at least 90 consecutive days."

Zarate said that aside from supporting the UN Security Council's plan, it is also important to ensure that no violations will occur between the government and the NDFP that can be used as a pretext to implement repressive measures or violations of human rights.

"In this regard, we are calling on the Commission on Human Rights (CHR) and United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) to conduct an independent probe on the supposed recent armed encounters between the AFP and the NPA during the lockdown ceasefire period, which Pres. Duterte cited in his threat for a possible imposition of Martial Law," he said.

"Likewise, we also call on the CHR and UNHRC to also investigate the reported indiscriminate military aerial bombings and other violations in the course of its counter-insurgency operations against the NPA rebels," he added.

Zarate pointed out that Luzon is entering the seventh week of the enhanced community quarantine yet there are still unreported cases of police and military human rights violations not only in Metro Manila but in other areas as well.

"This must be stopped. We have to remind time and again members of law enforcement groups and state security forces that the enemy is the corona virus and not the people," he said.

"It is therefore imperative that an independent probe body will look into all of these reported violations while we are at the same time calling for a wider support of this ongoing UN initiative so that affected countries, the Philippines especially, will concentrate its resources in solving the COVID pandemic with medical and socio-economic measures rather than militaristic ones," he added. —LDF, GMA News