Government responses to report on killings in the Philippines

On Monday, Philip Alston, the UN Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial executions, released a report on his fact-finding mission to the Philippines. In that report, he concluded that:

“[In some parts of the country,] the leaders of leftist organizations are systematically hunted down. Those who may know their whereabouts may be interrogated and tortured. A campaign of vilification designed to instill fear into the community follows, and the individual is often killed as a result. Such attacks and the attendant fear can lead to the disintegration of organized civil society. One person I met called the result ‘the peace of the dead’. This practice reflects more than the mere ‘excesses’ of a particular commander. Rather, it is a deliberate strategy in keeping with the overall trajectory of counterinsurgency thinking at the national level. . . . 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.

(Full report)

What follows is a round-up of responses to the report by government officials.

The Manila Times provides the response of Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita:

“This report is the same as Mr. Alston’s initial finding after his 10-day investigation on extrajudicial killings in the Philippines. We’re not bothered by this report as long as we are doing everything to address human rights issues in this country,” Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita said.

Ermita also appealed to the media to read and analyze the entirety of the UN report and avoid highlighting the portions that contains Alston’s opinion that implicates the Armed Forces.

The Philippine Star has a comment from the President’s Press Secretary, Ignacio Bunye:

Malacañang reiterated yesterday that the administration has been addressing the issue of unexplained killings and the government has no policy of tolerating human rights violations committed by the military.

Press Secretary Ignacio Bunye said that President Arroyo “has faced the issue of extrajudicial killings forthrightly and directly both at home and with foreign governments.”

Bunye pointed out that among the measures taken by the President to address the problem was the creation of the Melo Commission to get to the bottom of the issue.

Malacañang created the independent Commission to Address Media and Activists Killings, headed by retired Supreme Court justice Jose Melo.

Bunye said that the commission’s recommendations have been seriously followed by the Arroyo administration.

“We continue to take steps to make foreign governments and entities aware of the actions the Philippine government is taking to bring an end to the age old problem of political violence that has been an unfortunate part of Philippine political culture,” Bunye said.

General Hermogenes Esperon, Chief of Staff of the Armed Forces of the Philippines, provided a response covered by GMA News:

Armed Forces chief Gen. Hermogenes Esperon on Wednesday criticized the final report of UN rapporteur Philip Alston, who earlier affirmed that the Arroyo administration, through the military, had been carrying out a national policy of killing leftist activists

Esperon said Alston’s report was “half-baked” because the latter only spent 10 days in the Philippines before he came out with the report that solely blamed the military for the killings.

“I wish Mr. Alston had better and more complete sources. He was here for 10 days and suddenly he’s an expert in human rights in the Philippines, much more an expert in insurgency in the Philippines,” Esperon said during the 2nd Mindanao Indigenous Peoples Convention for Peace and Development at the Royal Mandaya Hotel in Davao City.

He said the AFP never denied that some soldiers were involved in extrajudicial killings. However, Esperon said the admission didn’t mean that Alston could all together blame the military, and conclude that the AFP was not doing anything to solve the killings and punish the perpetrators.

Esperon said two soldiers, one an enlisted personnel, and the other an officer were already facing court martial proceedings for the killing of radio broadcaster Rolly Cañete in Pagadian City in January 2006, and a Sangguniang Kabataan chairperson in Rizal, Cagayan province on December 13, 2006.

“Had he (Alston) stayed longer or had he talked to more people other than those people that gave him the initial data, then he could have known more about the real situation of human rights in the Philippines,” the AFP chief said.

. . .

But Esperon said the military was not into condoning these killings.

“(Human rights) is institutionalized in our promotion system, it is institutionalized in our values system,” he said.

Alston’s report, according to Esperon “is blind on one side (as it) only sees the other side.”

The response of the head of the Philippines National Police task force to investigate the killings of journalists and leftist activists, Jefferson Soriano, is printed by the AP:

Police Director Jefferson Soriano, however, said victims slain by rebels and insurgents “far outnumber the killings attributed by the leftists to the government.”

“From the evidence we have gathered, there is no official or sanctioned policy on the part of the military or its civilian supporters to resort to illegal liquidations,” he told reporters.

He challenged the figure of more than 800 people killed since 2001, provided by the left-wing Karapatan group and used in Alston’s report.

Soriano said the number “is blown up and misleading.” Out of 114 cases investigated by police, 57 were filed in court, with 24 attibuted to communist rebels, who have waged a rural-based Maoist insurgency for the last four decades, he said.

He said another seven cases implicated soldiers or paramilitary units.

“Not all of the killings are politically motivated,” he said. “The claim that all of the killings were perpetrated by the military and police is preposterous.”

The responses of Lt. Col. Bartolome Bacarro of the Armed Forces of the Philippines and of Foreign Affairs Secretary Alberto Romulo and others in the foreign ministry are in Xinhua:

Armed Forces public information chief Lt. Col. Bartolome Bacarro denied the allegations of Alston.

“It has never been a policy of the AFP (Armed Forces of the Philippines) to conduct such activities,” he said. “As an organization, the AFP will never tolerate any of its members to trample upon the rights of the people whom we are duty-bound to serve.”

On the other hand, Foreign Affairs Secretary Alberto Romulo said it was not necessary to counter Alston’s report since the government has made a detailed report that included steps taken to resolve the problem.

Leaders and representatives of other countries were receptive to the government’s report, he said.

Romulo said an assessment should be made on the government’s detailed report on the killings and the action taken by the Commission on Human Rights, the Presidential Human Rights Committee, the military and the police.

The Supreme Court set up 99 special courts to try cases of extrajudicial killings in response to Philippine President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo’s action strengthening the Witness Protection Program, he added.

Foreign Affairs Undersecretary for Policy Enrique Manalo, a former ambassador to the UN, said the government was taking urgent action to stop the extrajudicial killings and to identify and prosecute the perpetrators.

Based on the Presidential Human Rights Committee’s inventory, 60 cases of extrajudicial killings have been brought to court since 2001, he added.

Another response from the foreign ministry is in the Philippine Star:

Foreign Affairs Undersecretary for special concerns Rafael Seguis said the government does not agree with Alton’s report because the administration has been trying to solve the killings.

“The department does not fully agree with everything in the report. We are doing everything to address the extrajudicial killings and we are taking all the measures to put an end to it. The President has announced the measures to stop it,” Seguis said.

The Philippines was one of the few countries that extended an invitation to Alston to investigate the issue of unexplained killings.

While in the country, Alston was given access to government officials, including key officials of the Armed Forces and the Philippine National Police.

He was even granted an audience with the President during his visit last February.

Alston visited Manila, Baguio and Davao in the course of his investigation.

During his mission, the Special Rapporteur also investigated the actions of a death squad operating in Davao City and concluded:

The mayor’s position that he can do nothing to stop men without masks from routinely killing children for petty crimes in full view of witnesses lacks all credibility. Mayor Duterte should be stripped of his control over the local police, and the national government should assume responsibility for dismantling the death squad and prosecuting its members.

The mayor’s reaction is in the Philippine Star:

Duterte shrugged off Alston’s recommendation as rubbish.

“It’s all pure rubbish and all conclusions,” Duterte told The STAR.

The mayor said that he would leave his fate to the Napolcom.

Napolcom Southern Mindanao regional director Maria Luisa Opina said Alston’s report would be taken up by their head office.

Opina said that the law provides that the grounds for withdrawal of deputization shall include the abuse of authority, frequent and unauthorized absences of the local chief executive to supervise the police, providing material support to criminals, and engaging in acts inimical to national security.

PNP spokesman Chief Superintendent Samuel Pagdilao Jr. also downplayed Alston’s allegations, especially on the recommendation to strip Duterte of his control over the local police.

“The report is just his (Alston’s) opinion. But it remains to be seen whether or not these will stand judicial scrutiny, whether in our own courts in the country or in any international forum,” Pagdilao said.

He said Alston spent only a short time in the country and it was impossible for him to thoroughly investigate and establish that a death squad operates in Davao City.