A GLOBAL rights coalition has vowed to enhance its monitoring of military bombing operations that affect rural areas in the Philippines and other countries in the Asia-Pacific region.
“We, as people’s researchers, indigenous people, rural poor, and human rights workers, are sounding the alarm about the significant increase in state-led attacks, particularly aerial bombardments, on rural communities,” Azra Sayeed, chairperson of the Asia Pacific Research Network (APRN) said in a statement on Wednesday.
“These attacks have resulted in widespread death, injury, displacement, and destruction.”
APRN earlier launched the Silenced Suffering website, which serves as a real-time monitoring platform on these bombing incidents within the Asia-Pacific region.
The platform allows people to directly report bombing incidents in their areas.
At least 1,254 people in the Philippines were affected by aerial bombings from January 2022 to March 2023, according to the farmers’ group Tanggol Magsasaka. Of the total affected, 900 were displaced this year alone.
APRN said the fear of bombings in these rural areas has forced communities to flee, disrupting their livelihoods and forcing schools to close down.
It said most of the aerial bombardments on these communities go unreported and unaddressed.
The Philippine military launches aerial bombing operations usually in remote areas where communist rebel or terrorist groups hide or set up fort.
Last year, the United Nations signed a declaration against explosive weapons in populated areas after reports showed an increase in civilian casualties globally. — John Victor D. Ordoñez