Military officers make further comments on the Special Rapporteur’s report

General Hermogenes Espeon, chief of staff of the armed forces, has made some further comments on the Special Rapporteur’s report:

“The AFP is not denying that some of our elements have been involved in those unexplained killings just the way the PNP, the NPA, and some civilians are, but we are dealing with them as strictly as possible,” Esperon said.

He was referring to the investigation made by Task Force Usig which released a total of 51 cases, 7 of which involved the military, 21 the civilians, 1 from the PNP, and 24 from the New People’s Army (NPA).

During the press conference, Esperon admitted that the findings have saddened the entire AFP as this would not hold true in general especially that the AFP has long been upholding human rights ever since.

Esperon announced that from a small office before, he has now directed the elevation of the AFP Human Rights Office into a bigger one that is directly under him.

“In fact, there are now two cases of AFP elements that are being handled by the General Court Martial. We will continue to be strict in handling these cases,” he added.

However, the AFP chief questioned the reliability of the study made by an expert investigator who, according to him only gathered information and stayed in the Philippines in just 10 days.

“Alston didn’t even learn about the cases of Rano, Tabarra, and former mayor Libayao of Talaingod. He should have listened to the indigenous people who have more to say about these killings.”

Esperon said that he was able to meet with Alston during the conduct of the investigation and submitted some documents, but according to him ” Alston disregarded some of the most important cases.”

A senior military commander in the Visayas made the following comments:

Maj. Gen. Victor Ibrado, Armed Forces of the Philippines Central Command chief in the Visayas, yesterday maintained that it is not government and AFP policy to engage in extra judicial killings, following a United Nations special rapporteur’s report on the issue.

“It is not government or AFP policy to kill leftist activists,” Ibrado stressed.

“If people have evidence and witnesses against anyone in my unit, we will deliver them to the police and the courts”, he said.

Ibrado said the troops under him are constantly reminded to uphold human rights. “Extra judicial killings will never help in solving the problem, we know that.”

“Extra judicial killings are not in any way part of our strategy or concept for counter insurgency,” he also said.

“We cannot condemn our people immediately once a complaint is made without witnesses and evidence, but we will facilitate investigations if needed,” Ibrado also said.

A senior military commander in eastern Mindanao made the following comments:

THE United Nations’ report blaming the Armed Forces of the Philippines for most of the extrajudicial killings in the country is a “sweeping statement” and inaccurate.

This was how the military’s Eastern Mindanao Command chief Lieutenant General Cardoso Luna, described the report made by Philip Alston released Monday.

Alston, an Australian academic assigned by the UN Human Rights Council to look into the executions, said in his final report that the military had killed leftist activists as part of a campaign against communists.

Luna said a crime is never and will never be sanctioned by the Armed Forces of the Philippines as an organization. He said that if ever some soldiers indeed committed such crimes then they did these on their own and not as part of their duty as soldiers.

Luna assured the public that in the Eastmincom area, no extrajudicial killings will be ordered against any government detractors. He said the UN must instead point its fingers at the New People’s Army for many of the summary executions committed in the past years.

“Strikingly unconvincing” was however the observation made by Alston on the claim of Philippine authorities that the extrajudicial killings of leftist activists were a result of internal purges in the communist ranks.