MANILA, 23 February 2007 — Amid mounting pressure from international and local groups, the Arroyo government yesterday vowed to put an end to a spate of extrajudicial killings in the country.

President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo said the government was taking “constructively” the preliminary findings of Philip Alston, UN Special Rapporteur for Extra-Judicial Executions, who ended on Wednesday a 10-day probe into the killings.

Alston criticized the Philippine government and the military for not doing enough to stop the murders.

Gen. Hermogenes Esperon, the military commander, grudgingly ordered all members of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) not to attack members of legal organizations even though these have been tagged as fronts for the Communist Party of the Philippines or its military arm, the New People's Army (NPA).

Alston, who scored the military for being in “a state of almost total denial” of the “distressing” problem, had urged Arroyo to persuade the armed forces to act on allegations that soldiers were behind most of the killings.

He added that some aspects of government policies, such as its anti-insurgency campaign, tend to abet political murders, which have claimed the lives of more than 800 people since 2001, according to a local human rights group.

“Our seriousness in tackling the issue of unexplained killings is clear,” Arroyo said yesterday as she led low-key celebrations for the 21st anniversary of a four-day people power revolt that toppled the dictatorship of Ferdinand Marcos in February 1986.

“The government is not in denial, these killings will be resolved and the armed forces shall continue to be a vanguard for freedom,” she added.

Damning Report

In an effort to ease mounting pressure, Arroyo allowed the release of a local inquiry into the killings, which the government had initially refused to make public.

According to the 86-page report by the commission Arroyo created in August 2006, “a small military group” was behind the killings of leftist activists and that the theory of a purge by communist rebels of suspected traitors “cannot be accorded credence.”

“To maintain otherwise would be closing one’s eyes to reality,” said the report of the panel headed by retired Supreme Court Justice Jose Melo.

Many of those killed are members of organizations the government views as fronts for the NPA, which has been waging a decades-long insurgency that has killed more than 40,000 people.

The Melo Report said soldiers should not to take the law into their own hands to defeat the NPA.

“While communist insurgency must be addressed, the fight against it must not be at the expense of the constitution and the laws of the nation, and it hardly needs emphasizing, not at the expense of innocent civilians,” it said.

The Melo report was submitted to Arroyo last month but the government has not made it public, saying at that time that it was “incomplete.”

But yesterday, presidential spokesman Ignacio Bunye said that despite the incomplete report, the document represented a “milestone in our nation.”

“The president is pained to read the report that some soldiers are involved,” presidential spokesman Ignacio Bunye told reporters after releasing the document to media.

“We know that most members of the armed forces are doing their job,” he added. “But there are some bad eggs. That some among the ranks are misguided or criminal does a disservice to the entire reputation of our military and to our way of life. They must be brought to justice.”

State of Denial

While Arroyo calmly received Alston’s initial findings, some Cabinet members and the military became defensive over the UN officials’ strong words.

“Mr. Alston is the one in denial of the atrocities of the other side,” Justice Secretary Raul Gonzalez said, referring to killings allegedly perpetrated by communist rebels. “You can tell that son-of-a-gun that he doesn’t know what he’s talking about.”

General Esperon wondered why Alston did not put weight on the evidence the military presented, including a list of victims of alleged purges by the communist rebels. “I have the feeling that Mr. Alston is in a state of denial himself because he refuses to believe that the communist rebels perpetuate such killings,” he said. “He was not too enthusiastic when we submitted to him reports on 1,227 liquidations.”

Face the Truth

The Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) said it’s time for the Arroyo administration “to face the truth and admit the killings now.”

Khaled Musa, deputy chair of the MILF’s information committee, said the findings of Alston and the Melo Commission proved “beyond reasonable doubt that the military was behind the series of summary executions, disappearances of militants including scores of Moro people, who were usually tagged as terrorists.”

“This is a day of reckoning after many decades of denial by the military that it is not responsible for these killings,” Musa said. “Give justice to the victims. Bring before the bar of justice those responsible including high-ranking military officials.” Musa said.

He said the public outcry would mount if the government would continue to deny the military’s involvement.

“The more you deny, the more public outcry and international condemnation is awaiting your government,” warned.

An international media organization yesterday also urged Arroyo to “act now to stop the killings of journalists in the Philippines.”

“The time has come for change in the Philippines,” Christopher Warren, president of the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ), said in a statement reacting to the findings of Alston.

He noted that, since Arroyo’s inauguration in 2001, “50 journalists have been murdered in the Philippines,” the latest being local weekly editor Hernani Pastolero, gunned down outside his home in Sultan Kudarat town in Shariff Kabunsuan province Monday.

Warren said despite efforts of the IFJ and its local affiliate, the National Union of Journalists of the Philippines, to campaign for an end to the killings of journalists, “unfortunately, the slaughter has not slowed.” In a number of media killings, the suspects have turned out to have links to state security forces.

“There is only one other country in the world with a higher murder rate of its professional journalists — and that country is Iraq,” which has been gripped by war since it was invaded and occupied by the US.

Warren said Alston’s findings showed that “the time has come for the Armed Forces of the Philippines to fully investigate and expunge its dark underbelly...for the government to protect its citizens...(and) for reconciliation, truth and peace.”

Rhetorical Support

President Arroyo has called for special courts to deal with political killings and asked the armed forces to update its rules on command responsibility, but analysts doubt there will be a major impact on the military.

The government has traditionally shied away from harsh punishment of the military, which can make or break an administration and helped propel Arroyo to power in 2001.

“The fact that Macapagal Arroyo’s own position as leader is closely tied to military support would suggest rhetorical recognition of the report but probably not too much quick change,” said Malcolm Cook, a program director at the Lowy Institute in Australia.

Lawmaker Teodoro Casiño, who is a member of Bayan Muna, a leftist group whose members have been among those killed, said their statements were “a pathetic attempt at a whitewash.” (With input from Agencies and Inquirer News Service)