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Tuesday January 22, 7:37 PMManila courts issues new rules to stop killingsMANILA (Reuters) - The Philippines' Supreme Court approved new rules on Tuesday that will force the police and military to hand over records and confidential documents to the families of suspected victims of extrajudicial execution.Chief Justice Reynato Puno said the writ of habeas data, which would take effect on Feb. 2, was intended to strengthen activists' right to privacy. "The writ would give petitioners more authority to gather or extract data about the disappearances and extrajudicial killings, allowing families of the victim to know the truth surrounding the cases," Puno told reporters. Local human rights groups say over 1,000 people have either been killed or disappeared since President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo came to power in 2001. Alarmed that the crimes were going unpunished, the Supreme Court issued rules last year that held the authorities more accountable to human rights abuses. The United Nations has said that soldiers were killing left-wing activists as part of a counter-insurgency campaign against communist rebels. The military has denied that the murder rate is so high and that the killings are tactical. It blames the deaths, often carried out by masked men on motorbikes, on an internal purge within the communist New People's Army. Early this month, Arroyo said the killings had been reduced by 80 percent in 2007 after her government took steps to make troops and police officers more accountable and to respect human rights. |
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