Eleven cases of extra-judicial killings in 10 weeks.

Human rights advocates, in a picket-protest in front of the Department of Justice (DOJ), called attention to this fact and urged the  Aquino government to find and punish the perpetrators of these killings and other human rights violations.

“If the Aquino government cannot control and stop its killing spree, BS Aquino, the commander in-chief of the armed forces, has no business staying in Malacañang,” said Karapatan secretary-general Cristina Palabay.

The group said the latest victims of extra-judicial killings were Romeo Capalla who was shot on March 15 in Oton, Iloilo province; and father and sons, Licuben, Eddie and Freddie Ligiw in Baay-Licuan, Abra province.

The Ligiws’ went missing for a few days. Their bodies were found buried in a shallow grave on March 8.

Military officials denied responsibility in the two separate incidents. In media reports, the 3rd Infantry Division of the Philippine Army based in Capiz denied the allegation of Karapatan, while the Army’s 41stInfantry Batallion in Abra accused Abra Human Rights Movement of “tampering’  evidence in the crime scene.

“The military is always in denial when it comes to extrajudicial killings,we know they are behind the killings,” said Clarizza Singson-Dagatan, regional coordinator of Karapatan-Iloilo. Dagatan stressed that Capalla was accused as a top rebel official, subjected to surveillance and was filed with a trump-up case and a clear pattern of extrajudicial killings.

Audrey Beltran, secretary general of Cordillera Human Rights Alliance (CHRA), meanwhile, described the accusation of the military as “the height of impunity and disrespect .”

Beltran said that human rights workers in Abra followed the instructions to wait for the crime scene investigators of the Philippine National Police who exhumed the bodies of the Ligiw’s. She added that human rights workers and all members of Karapatan are trained in preservation of evidences.

“The accusation of the 41st IB is baseless, (and is) meant only to intimidate human rights workers in the area,” Beltran said. The CHRA demanded the military unit to pull-out of Abra and called for an independent and impartial investigation of the Ligiws’ case.

Karapatan said that the Aquino government appears to have no intention of rendering justice to victims of extrajudicial killings.

“Just two weeks ago, we were here at the DOJ to sound the alarm bell and protest the seven reported incidents of killings in the first six weeks of 2014. In a matter of two weeks, four more incidents of extra-judicial killings happened,” said Palabay.

Palabay added that it seems the government is “running after its quota” of killings. Since December 2013, the group has documented 169 victims of extra-judicial killings across the country.