Philip Alston, the United Nations special rapporteur on extrajudicial executions, has released his final report on his investigation into political killings in the Philippines.

Download the report by clicking here.

Here are some excerpts:

Two policy initiatives are of special importance to understanding why the killings continue. First, the military’s counterinsurgency strategy against the CPP/NPA/NDF increasingly focuses on dismantling civil society organizations that are purported to be “CPP front groups”. Second, the criminal justice system has failed to arrest, convict, and imprison those responsible for extrajudicial executions. This is partly due to a distortion of priorities that has law enforcement officials focused on prosecuting civil society leaders rather than their killers.

The military is in a state of denial concerning the numerous extrajudicial executions in which its soldiers are implicated. 36 Some military officers would concede that a few killings might have been perpetrated by rogue elements within the ranks, but they consistently and unequivocally reject the overwhelming evidence regarding the true extent of the problem. Instead, they relentlessly pushed on me the theory that large numbers of leftist activists are turning up dead because they were victims of internal purges within the CPP and NPA. I repeatedly sought evidence from the Government to support this contention. But the evidence presented was strikingly unconvincing.

[The] pieces of evidence [presented to Alston] do not begin to support the contention that the CPP/NPA/NDF is engaged in a large-scale purge. Indeed, I met no one involved in leftist politics — whether aligned with the CPP, opposed to the CPP, or following an independent course — who believed that such a purge was currently taking place. The military’s insistence that the “correct, accurate, and truthful” reason for the recent rise in killings lies in CPP/NPA/NDF purges can only be viewed as a cynical attempt to displace responsibility.

There is impunity for extrajudicial executions. No one has been convicted in the cases involving leftist activists, and only six cases involving journalists have resulted in convictions.

The central purpose of IALAG is to prosecute and punish members of the CPP and its purported front groups whenever there is any legal basis for doing so. I received no evidence that it was designed or generally functions to plan extrajudicial executions. However, IALAG’s proactive legal strategy requires drawing up lists of individuals who are considered enemies of the state but many of whom will not be reachable by legal process. The temptation to execute such individuals is clear, representatives of the AFP and PNP with the capacity to do so participate in IALAG bodies at all levels, and there is circumstantial evidence that this has sometimes occurred. The most deleterious role played by IALAG bodies may, however, be to encourage prosecutors to act as team players with the AFP and PNP in counterinsurgency operations and to de-prioritize cases involving the deaths of leftist activists.

The executive branch has stymied the legislature’s efforts to oversee the execution of laws. Military officers are seldom permitted to appear before Congress other than at budget hearings. A high-ranking government official recounted with genuine puzzlement the efforts of the Committee on Human Rights of the House of Representatives to obtain the testimony of senior military officers. This was considered self-evidently preposterous and was “successfully avoided”.

The legislature has also failed to exercise its constitutional authority to block the promotion of military officers implicated in human rights abuse.

And then excerpts of Alston’s recommendations:

As Commander-in-Chief of the armed forces, the President must take concrete steps to put an end to those aspects of counterinsurgency operations which have led to the targeting and execution of many individuals working with civil society organizations.

The necessary measures should be taken to ensure that the principle of command responsibility, as it is understood in international law, is a basis for criminal liability within the domestic legal order.

The Government should immediately direct all military officers to cease making public statements linking political or other civil society groups to those engaged in armed insurgencies. Any such characterizations belong solely within the power of the civilian authorities. They must be based on transparent criteria, and conform with the human rights provisions of the Constitution and relevant treaties.

IALAG should be abolished, and the criminal justice system should refocus on investigating and prosecuting those committing extrajudicial executions and other serious crimes.