Lorenzana orders AFP to protect privacy of families of rebels who died in encounters

November 30, 2020

Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana ordered the military to study how it could better protect the dignity and privacy of the family of rebels killed during encounters.

"Maybe we will study how we can protect the dignity and privacy of the families. We know that they have families... and I have directed the AFP (Armed Forces of the Philippines) to look into how we can (better) treat this, those who were killed during the encounter better," the defense chief said Monday.

Lorenzana made his statement amid the allegations that the military used the body of Jevilyn Cullamat as a trophy, after a photo release by the military shows soldiers posed at the back of her cadaver while holding seized banners of the rebels.

The AFP died this,  saying that the photo was "not meant to scoff..the dead".

"We vehemently deny that. The photo was taken for reporting and documentation purposes that is required after every encounter. It was not meant to scoff at the dead or demean the remains whose identity is not known to the soldiers," said Maj. Gen. Edgard Arevalo, AFP spokesman.

"To be able to identify her, soldiers had to carry the dead body for half a day of hike from the site of the encounter where she was left behind by her NPA comrades to the lowland," he added.

Arevalo said the AFP is conducting an inquiry on the matter.   "It was not an AFP policy to pass a photo like that; and a similar act constitute a violation of our stringent policy," he said.  

"The matter is already being investigated. And the one who caused that faces sanctions," he added. Robina Asido/DMS