International watchdog decries killing of Philippine mayor, son

Manila: The recent executions of a Philippine mayor and his son by a rebel group was “plain murder” no matter the lengths the insurgent movement tries to justify it as otherwise, Human Rights Watch has said.

In a statement issued Thursday, Phil Robertson, deputy Asia director of the New York headquartered international NGO, said the killing by the New Peoples’ Army (NPA) of 53-year-old Mayor Dario Otaza of Loreto town, in Agusan del Sur province, and his son Daryl, 27, is a violation of international humanitarian law.

“The killing of the Otazas — like other NPA executions — is just plain murder,” he said.

The Otazas were abducted by armed men on the evening of October 19.

The following morning, authorities found their bodies in Bitan-agan village, Butuan City, hogtied and with multiple gunshot wounds.

The NPA admitted to killing the pair while at the same time justifying the execution as part of revolutionary justice to compensate for their supposed crimes against the people that included masterminding the deaths of at least three people, taking part in attacks and forced displacement of indigenous peoples as well as working for the military.

Otaza, also known as “Datu Malampuson,” was a member of the Manobo indigenous group — a Lumad, and was a former rebel.

Otaza had joined the NPA in 1978 and rose through the ranks.

In 1985, he surrendered and took active participation in local livelihood and development projects of government. He was elected mayor of Loreto in 2013.

It warned that the cycle of killings would continue.

“The NPA killings may worsen the human rights situation in Agusan del Sur and other provinces in the southern Philippines, where the military and its paramilitary forces have been implicated in extrajudicial killings and it said.

It called on the NPA to end “this charade of unjust ‘people’s courts’ and cease all executions.”