SC asked to invalidate appointment of ex-PNP exec as human rights claims board chief

A group composed of former and incumbent party-list lawmakers has asked the Supreme Court to invalidate the appointment of the Philippine National Police's (PNP) first female director as head of the body that will process the claims of human rights victims during the Martial Law regime.

 

In its petition filed Tuesday, the group said President Benigno Aquino III committed grave abuse of discretion when he installed retired police Director Lina Castillo-Sarmiento as head of the Human Rights Victims' Claims Board.

 

Both Aquino and Sarmiento were named as respondents in the petition, which also sought the issuance of a status quo ante order, a temporary restraining order, or a writ of preliminary injunction, pending the resolution of the plea.

 

The group of petitioners is composed of former Bayan Muna party-list Rep. Satur Ocampo, incumbent Bayan Muna Rep. Neri Colmenares, Maria Carolina Araullo, Trinidad Repuno, Tita Lubi, and Josephine Dongail.

Last week, Malacañang appealed to government critics to give Sarmiento a chance to prove herself as HRVC chief.

 

The current leadership of the CHR as well as Justice Secretary Leila de Lima, a former CHR chairperson herself, have already welcomed Sarmiento's appointment.

 

Sarmiento, who headed the PNP’s Directorate for Police Community Relations and the PNP Human Rights Affairs Office, retired last January a few months short of the mandatory retirement age of 56.

Petition vs Sarmiento

 

In its petition, the group raised doubts as to whether Sarmiento has a "deep and thorough understanding and knowledge of human rights violations committed during the regime of former President Ferdinand E. Marcos" as required by law.

 

"There is nothing on public record that respondent Sarmiento ever got involved in any effort against such atrocities during the dictatorship. If at all, she was a silent, passive, if not acquiescent cog in the security apparatus of the repressive dictatorship," the group said.

 

"It is not only a question of whether respondent Sarmiento is qualified under the law but is also a question as to whether respondent Aquino’s act of appointing respondent Sarmiento contravenes the very essence of the law he is supposed to implement," read the petition.

 

The petitioner said Aquino may argue that Sarmiento has a track record as a member and officer of the Philippine National Police but "it cannot be denied that she lacks the mandated qualifications set forth under the law and the institution she represents lacks the credibility and integrity to deliver justice to human right victims."

 

The group noted that many members of the Philippine Constabulary-Integrated National Police (PC-INP) and the Armed Forces of the Philippines and other paramilitary groups were the alleged perpetrators of human rights violations against the Filipino people during Martial Law.

 

"As the HRAO chief, she became part of the machinery which 'attempted to deodorize the stench of the internationally condemned cases of extrajudicial killings and enforced disappearances,'" the group said

 

The group cited a report from the Hong Kong-based Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) claiming that Sarmiento had dismissed calls for investigation on the case of 32-year-old farmer Renante Romagus.

 

Romagus survived after being forcibly abducted, tortured, held in captivity, and repeatedly stabbed last December 12, 2007 in Compostela Valley in Mindanao.

 

"(Sarmiento) lamely but callously blamed instead the victim’s inability to identify his perpetrators," said the group.

 

The group also noted that Sarmiento also became a member of former President Arroyo’s Task Force Usig, a body created supposedly to investigate cases of extrajudicial killings and enforced disappearances.

 

"(Task Force Usig) failed in its mandate to prosecute the perpetrators of these heinous human rights abuses because it passed on the blame to the victims and their supposed organizations rather than investigate internally into the complicity of members and officers of the police, military and paramilitary," the group said. — RSJ, GMA News