Final report to UN traces abuses to new anti-reb tactic
By ANTHONY IAN CRUZ
Malaya
Nov. 28, 2007
RECENT efforts of the Arroyo government to influence the final report of United Nations special rapporteur Philip Alston on political killings besetting the country have proved useless.
In his 66-page final report, Alston blamed the government and the Armed Forces of the Philippines for the extrajudicial executions of activists and called on President Arroyo to issue an order ending “aspects of counterinsurgency operations which have led to the targeting and execution of many individuals working for civil society organizations.”
The report came about a month after Arroyo sent a team led by Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita to the UN headquarters in New York to defend the government’s human rights record.
Alson’s final report said “leaders of leftist organizations are systematically hunted down by interrogating and torturing those who may know their whereabouts, and they are often killed following a campaign of individual vilification designed to instill fear into the community.”
Alston visited the Philippines from February 12 to 21 this year. His initial report, delivered on the eve of his departure, also blamed the military for disappearances and the killings.
The initial report, however, stopped short of saying the killings were a product of the military’s newly adopted counter-insurgency campaign which focuses on the dismantling of the rebellion’s political apparatus.
In the final report, Alson underlined the link.
“These killings have eliminated civil society leaders, including human rights defenders, trade unionists and land reform advocates, intimidated a vast number of civil society actors, and narrowed the country’s political discourse,” he said.
He cited two reasons behind the continuation of political killings: “First, the military’s counterinsur-gency 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,” Alston said.
Alston reiterated the military was in a “state of denial” over the unsolved killings, and described as “strikingly unconvincing” the evidence presented to support military claims of an ongoing communist purge as the reason for the killings.
He said that military’s claim of a communist purge “can only be viewed as a cynical attempt to displace responsibility.”
He also said the Arroyo government has “stymied the legislature’s efforts” to address the killings and military abuses.
Alston also called for the abolition of the Inter-Agency Legal Action Group headed by national security adviser Norberto Gonzales for “distorting the criminal justice system’s priorities” by encouraging prosecutors to run after activists and leftists party list representatives instead of running after those who perpetrated the killings.
Among other recommendations made by the UN rapporteur is the issuance of monthly accomplishment reports by the Commission on Human Rights, the Task Force Usig and special tribunals organized by the Supreme Court to handle cases of political killings.
Alston also said the Witness Protection Program should be strengthened and transferred to an office independent of the Department of Justice.
He also called for meetings and the fulfillment of the mandate of the joint monitoring committee overseeing the landmark Comprehensive Agreement on Respect for Human Rights and International Humanitarian Law signed by Manila and Utrecht-based negotiators of the National Democratic Front.
The Armed Forces, reacting to Alston’s report, said it has not been its policy to resort to extra-judicial killings.
“As an organization, we will not allow our people, and we will never tolerate anybody to trample upon the rights of the people whom we are duty bound to serve,” said AFP information office chief Lt. Col. Bartolome Bacarro.
“The AFP recognizes and respects the rights of others to the democratic space that all citizens are entitled to. The AFP, as an organization, will not trample on the rights of the others, including those who are critical of the AFP and of the government,” he said.
Bacarro said the military has been transparent about its activities, making available personnel who have been linked to the killings. – With Victor Reyes