Special Rapporteur concludes visit to the Philippines

On Wednesday, Philip Alston concluded his 10 day visit to the Philippines and issued a press statement (html | pdf).

Here is a quick rundown of the front-page coverage in the Thursday morning Manila dailies:

The Manila Times

• ‘AFP in denial’: ‘Virtual impunity’ due to witness vulnerability
• Palace to release Melo report; dismayed by UN team findings
• Military insists on purge story
• Alston: RP democratic gains under siege

Philippine Daily Inquirer

These do not appear to be available online, but for related stories from the same media company, see UN exec to RP: Admit extrajudicial killings are happening: Many murders ‘convincingly attributed’ to military, UN official, not military, is in denial - Esperon: AFP chief orders troops not to attack legal groups, and Malacañang making Melo report public.

• UN blames military for political killings: GMA orders release of Melo report, P25M to CHR
• Who is this man?
• Defense, AFP silent on report; Gonzalez says Alston brainwashed

The Philippine Star

• UN: AFP in denial on killings: Melo report to be made public today
• Probe was biased from the start - AFP

Malaya

• AFP behind ‘many’ killings, says UN prober: ‘Military in state of almost total denial’
• Palace releases Melo report today

One quick response by the Government was its release of a report that had been previously made by the Melo Commission but never disclosed to the public. In his statement, Alston had said:

It is not for me to evaluate the Melo Report. That is for the people of the Philippines to do. The President showed good faith in responding to allegations by setting up an independent commission. But the political and other capital that should have followed is being slowly but surely drained away by the refusal to publish the report. The justifications given are unconvincing. The report was never intended to be preliminary or interim. The need to get ‘leftists’ to testify is no reason to withhold a report which in some ways at least vindicates their claims. And extending a Commission whose composition has never succeeded in winning full cooperation seems unlikely to cure the problems still perceived by those groups. Immediate release of the report is an essential first step.

The report of the Melo Commission was released by the Government and has been posted on the website of the Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism here.

Thursday, February 22nd, 2007 | Permalink