Public Hearings On Summary Killings in Davao: Will They Help Turn The Tide?

DAVAO CITY, Philippines (Philippine Human Rights Reporting Project / Mar. 6, 2009) – As the Commission on Human Rights (CHR) announces its intention to hold a public hearing on continuing extrajudicial killings here later this month, church and civil rights groups remain skeptical that it will have any lasting effect.

The city’s highly outspoken and colorful mayor, Rodrigo Duterte who has repeatedly gone on record as saying Davao is not a safe place for criminals, has consistently denied the authorities have any link to the killings and has publicly welcomed the CHR’s planned event.

Davao has long struggled with the reputation as the killing capital of the Philippines – ever since the 1980s, when an armed vigilante group known as the Alsa Masa (Rise, People) was set up in response to a campaign of guerilla war and assassinations being waged by the Communist New People’s Army (NPA) here.

During a February dialogue organized by the city council’s Committee on Human Rights and the Integrated Bar of the Philippines, the Bar pointed to 813 alleged victims of summary killings by the so-called Davao Death Squads (DDS) from 1998. In January 2009 alone, 33 persons have been reported killed.

Like Duterte, the city’s police chief Senior Superintendent Ramon Apolinario has consistently rejected all claims that death squads operate in the city, and has called those with any evidence to come forward. The police and the mayor blame gang and drug wars as the primary reason for the large number of killings.

Davao City’s own police records report 221 killings in the 10 months from January through to October last year.

CHR chair Leila De Lima, who is organizing the two-day hearings starting March 30, says she is alarmed over the effects all the bloodshed is having on the psyche of the local community.

“The killings in Davao have reached a glaring and alarming proportion,” De Lima told reporters in Cebu City last month.

“Even the judges recognized that it’s time to do something. It has an effect on the consciousness of people in Davao. The culture of impunity is getting too callous already,” De Lima said. “Before, they (the killers) used to be hooded but now, they’re doing it in broad daylight, and they’re using knives and walking calmly away.”

“It’s a mentality, a mindset that is not acceptable, and we need to erase that mentality,” she said.

As part of its ongoing training on covering extrajudicial killings and enforced disappearances, the Philippine Human Rights Reporting Project recently organized a workshop in Davao for 60 local journalists in an effort to help them to better investigate and follow-up cases of unexplained killings.

"The Alston Report"

United Nations Special Rapporteur on Extrajudicial, Summary or Arbitrary Executions Philip Alston, who briefly visited Davao in February 2007 to look into the continuing high level of killings, noted in his 66-page final report: “Duterte dominates the city so thoroughly as to stamp out whole genres of crime, yet he remains powerless in the face of hundreds of murders committed by men without masks in view of witnesses.”

Alston also claimed “the police used the ‘Davao Death Squad’ as a ‘polite euphemism’ to refer vaguely to ‘vigilante groups’ when accounting for the shocking predictability with which criminals, gang members, and street children were extrajudicially executed.”

Concern over the continuing spate of unexplained killings has also been expressed by the British chairman of the UK Parliamentary Committee on the Philippines. Mark Pritchard MP told the Philippine Human Rights Reporting Project he raised the issue in a meeting with Mayor Duterte during a visit to Davao late last year.

"History of killings"

The CHR is hoping to entice witnesses to come out and speak at its public hearing – something others privately say will not happen.

But de Lima is insistent that the CHR has to try. Something, she says, has to be done. She also questions the response and position of the authorities.

“How can something as systematic and as glaring happen without the consent of powerful people?” she asked.

De Lima has already met with the mayor and says Duterte told her of the need to explore the history of the killings which trace back to the 1980s.

By the end of the Marcos dictatorship in 1986, the city had become an NPA ‘laboratory’ as it attempted to wage urban warfare on the city’s authorities: Davao was plagued by political and military executions committed by so-called liquidation squads known as ‘sparrows’ commanded by the NPA – the armed wing of the Communist Party of the Philippines.

The city and surrounding Davao del Sur province saw the birth of two anti-communist groups committed to fight the NPA – the Alsa Masa and the Nagkahiusang Katawhan Alang sa Kalinaw (Nakasaka, or the United Peoples for Peace).
Founders of these groups included former local
government officials who maintained members were ordered not to violate human rights in their anti-insurgency campaigns. But both the NPA and the two anti-communist groups were accused of very serious and systematic human rights abuses including summary killings.

"Skeptic"

Father Amado Picardal, a local human rights advocate, says he does not believe the upcoming event will accomplish anything.

“I am glad the CHR is finally concerned about these killings. But I do not believe that a public hearing will accomplish anything. Witnesses are afraid to testify,” Picardal said.
He added it would be better for the CHR to conduct a discrete investigation. But the problem is, he says, the CHR’s mandate is limited.

“A special independent commission to investigate these killings formed by the President in coordination with the CHR and civil society is probably more effective.”

Picardal claims the killings are not random but rather part of a systematic campaign against suspected criminals using unlawful means. He maintains they are tolerated, inspired and sponsored by those in authority - yet admits not to have any proof “that will stand up in court.”

Picardal added: “These killings can never be morally justified -you cannot run after criminals using criminal means. These killings are murder. The due process of law and the presumption of innocence cannot be disregarded.”

And yet Picardal admits that whoever is responsible enjoys the support of many who are glad to see the streets safer as a result. One of these, a taxi driver who refused to be named, said that he feels safe even late at night.

“Yes the killings help keep me safe because petty crimes have been minimized,” he told the Philippine Human Rights Reporting Project. “People are scared to commit crime.”
But others insist that not only petty criminals are targeted for attack.

Kelly Delgado, secretary general human rights group Karapatan for southern Mindanao says CHR should not just focus on the killing of criminals in Davao, but also on victims of extrajudicial killings in Davao del Sur and Compostela Valley.

Unabated yet unresolved killings of Bayan Muna (People First) organizers and peasant activists in the two provinces late last year raised questions whether they are part of an ‘undeclared’ war against critics of the Arroyo administration and suspected supporters of the communist movement.

Delgado says the killings of both suspected criminals in the city and political activists merits a deeper investigation from authorities. (Keith Bacongco - Philippine Human Rights Reporting Project. The author is a journalist based in Davao City and one of the founders of AKP Images, an independent photo agency.)

Philippines Fail To Improve Human Rights Records

HUMAN RIGHTS COUNCIL

Ninth session

Written statement submitted by the Asian Legal Resource Centre (ALRC), a non-governmental organization with general consultative status.

PHILIPPINES: The failure to implement the Human Rights Council’s key recommendations concerning extra-judicial killings.

During its Universal Periodic Review, on April 11, 2008, the representative of the government of the Philippines expressed "its commitment as a human rights defender to protect the rights of all its citizens, and to observe the Universal Declaration of Human Rights." The Asian Legal Resource Centre (ALRC) recalls that Article 3 of the Declaration states that, "everyone has the right to life, liberty and security of person." Additionally, it states under Article 8 that, "everyone has the right to an effective remedy by the competent national tribunals for acts violating the fundamental rights granted him by the constitution or by law."

Similarly, Article 2 of the ICCPR, to which the Philippines is party, states that "any person whose rights or freedoms as herein recognized are violated shall have an effective remedy, notwithstanding that the violation has been committed by persons acting in an official capacity."
However, the ALRC has seen no evidence that the Philippines is making any good-faith attempts to take action that will ensure that victims of even the gravest human rights abuses are being provided with effective remedy.

This is evidenced by the lack of effective, independent investigations into the hundreds of extra-judicial killings and forced disappearances reported since 2001. Without effective investigations there cannot be prosecutions that result in those responsible being brought to justice or the provision of effective remedies to the victims or their families.

The representative of the Philippines promised "to maintain the momentum on addressing killings of activists and media professionals." The ALRC is not aware of any real momentum or actions concerning these violations, other than the ongoing political and diplomatic efforts by the authorities to save face and side-step their responsibilities under international law.

The ALRC welcomes the significant drop in killings that have followed the increased international pressure on the government of the Philippines, but remains concerned that killings and forced disappearances and that the perpetrators of these grave abuses remain free and capable of resuming the killings again, unless brought to justice. The fact that the killings dropped at the same time as international pressure was being applied clearly indicates that State-agents are involved in these abuses.

This was also highlighted by the Special Rapporteur on extra-judicial killings, Professor Philip Alston, in his report to the Council, in which he noted that "the military is in a state of denial concerning the numerous extra-judicial executions in which its soldiers are implicated." Since this report was presented, there have been no improvements to the situation with regard to investigations and prosecutions.

Following his visit to the country in February 2007, Philip Alston made a series of initial recommendations, which were followed by further recommendations in his report. Despite claims by the government that it would take concrete action, these recommendations are not being implemented, allowing impunity to be enjoyed by those responsible for the killings.
Furthermore, during the Universal Periodic Review process, a number of comments and recommendations were made concerning the killings and other grave rights abuses.

Canada stressed its concern about how few convictions there have been. France expressed concern about the low number of resolved cases and asked for evidence of follow-up and implementations of the Special Rapporteur’s recommendations, as did Australia, Brazil, the Netherlands, Norway and the United Kingdom. Switzerland recommended that the Philippines intensify its efforts to carry out investigations and prosecutions on extra-judicial killings and punish those responsible, and suggested that the witness protection programme should be strengthened.

It also recommended that the Philippines address the root causes of this issue in the context of the appropriate reforms of the judiciary and the security forces. The United States also asked the Philippines for information on actions being taken to address extra-judicial killings and to ensure the prosecution and conviction of perpetrators.

The representative of the Holy See called on the government of the Philippines to completely eliminate torture and extra-judicial killings.
Another significant problem has been the continuing surge of vigilante killings this year in Davao City as well as General Santos, Tagum and Cagayan de Oro cities in Southern Philippines.

The continuing climate of impunity concerning extra-judicial killings is clearly a factor enabling this upsurge of violence. This phenomenon has previously been endemic in Davao City, prompting Professor Alston to recommend the "abolition of death squads" there. However, once again, the government is ignoring recommendations and has failed to intervene to stop the killings.

No improvement to witness protection mechanism

A key recommendation made by Professor Alston urges the provision of protection to witnesses and "all those who will be put at risk by an individual's testimony." The police have frequently used the lack of witnesses coming forward as an excuse for the lack of progress concerning investigations. For example, in Davoa City, Senior Superintendent Ramon Apolinario attempted to justify this failure, stating that "as long as we do not have the testimonies of the witnesses, we can never file formal charges." The lack of forensics and effective investigation techniques and political will are of greater significance, in reality.

Despite claims by the government during the UPR review that legislation for the strengthening of the Witness Protection programme was urgent, it is not moving forwards with any urgency. It is the police's constitutional obligation to ensure that the cases they are investigating are effectively prosecuted, including by providing interim protection to potential witnesses before they are covered by the witness protection programme. Their failure to do so is the prime cause of the lack of witnesses and therefore convictions.

A glaring lack of convictions

Other than the three persons that were convicted in October 2006 for the March 2005 murder of journalist Marlene Esperat, no other cases of extra-judicial or vigilante killings have resulted in convictions. It is reported that it was only because these three pleaded guilty to the murder charges that the convictions were possible. They were not the result of effective police investigations. The masterminds behind the killings remain at large.

Aside from the Esperat case, none of the 139 cases of extra-judicial killings of social activists that the ALRC has documented between January 2003 and November 2007 (and submitted as part of its UPR submission) have resulted in convictions. Furthermore, concerning the killings of 42 persons, including women and children, by vigilantes in the country’s South since January 2008, none of the perpetrators have been identified, charged or prosecuted in court.

The witnesses, families of the dead and even NGOs there are too frightened to get involved. There is also lack of proper documentation concerning allegations of vigilante killings, in particular by the Commission on Human Rights of the Philippines (CHRP). Professor Alston recommended that the CHRP should issue a monthly report on the killings.

The ALRC's sister-organisation, the Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC), has repeatedly appealed to CHRP Chairperson, Leila de Lima, for the CHRP to consistently investigate and document allegations of extra-judicial killings and other forms of arbitrary deprivation of life. However, no response has been received.

The lack of progress by Special Courts

Although the Supreme Court (SC) has reported that it had designated special courts to hear cases involving extra-judicial killings, the ALRC remains unaware of these courts ever being used. In effect, these courts may have been set up on paper, but have not functioned in reality.

Even if these special courts do exist, the failure to have charges or complaints filed against the perpetrators in court - which is a result of lack of witness and their protection - has made these special courts meaningless. If no charges are filed, there can never be prosecutions.
Designating special courts alone without addressing problems surrounding investigation and prosecution does not serve any real purpose. Perhaps this is what the authorities intended?

The Writ of Amparo being undermined

The SC's implementation of the Writ of Amparo, a judicial remedy which is supposedly to provide any person the judicial protection he requires once his life, security and liberty are threatened, was initially welcomed as providing a new avenue for security.

However, a series of rejections concerning petitions seeking issuance of the writ are undermining its credibility. According to a lawyers' group, the National Union of Peoples' Lawyers (NUPL), five of their petitions have been rejected by the Court of Appeals (CA), as the result of claims that the petitioners supposedly failed to produce "clear evidence" of "apparent or visible" threats to their lives. This judgment has unreasonably placed the burden of proof of threats on the person seeking protection.

The courts' judgment runs contrary to the intent of the writ, which concerns: "not a criminal action requiring proof beyond reasonable doubt, nor is it a civil or administrative proceeding, but a prerogative writ intended to protect human rights". On cases involving extra-judicial killings, it is extremely difficult for a victim experiencing threats to produced evidence sufficient to convince a court and threats are not made in a way that allows that.

Numerous activists have been killed following receiving threatening short messages service (SMS) and phone calls, amongst others. The police have typically accepted to record the incident, but have not taken any further action, often resulting in the activists being killed. The police investigators claim to have no means of investigating threats originating from mobile phones and identifying those making threats.

The Asian Legal Resource Centre (ALRC) therefore urges the Human Rights Council to ensure that the Philippines immediately implement the large number of recommendations that the UPR and Special Procedures have produced.

The government must make good on its pledges to the Council, notably as part of the UPR review, by going beyond the tactic of forever setting up new task forces and committees, and ensure actual, rapid and effective investigation and prosecution of cases, in line with its international obligations.

It should also issue a standing invitation to all Special Procedures, and sign and ratify the International Convention on the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance and the Optional Protocol to the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (CAT).

At present, the government’s claiming to be a human rights defender is convincing only the ill-informed.


Footnotes:

1 Please see UN document with reference: A/HRC/8/3/Add.22 Please see the initial recommendations in the document with reference: A/HRC/4/20/Add.3, and further recommendations in the report in A/HRC/8/3/Add.2.3 Information taken from the report of the UPR Working Group, A/HRC/8/28

Philippines Military Executing Leftist Activists, UN Independent Expert Finds

The Armed Forces of the Philippines has been executing leftist activists in recent years, an independent United Nations human rights expert said in a new report which welcomes Government measures to address the problem while emphasizing the need to end impunity through prosecution and punishment.

“A significant number of the hundreds of extrajudicial executions of leftist activists in the Philippines that have taken place over the past six years are the result of deliberate targeting by the military as part of counterinsurgency operations against the communist rebels,” said Philip Alston, the Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions.

The report which is accessible on this URL http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=24799&Cr=philippine&Cr1= was released on Tuesday. And the Philippine military has strongly denied the allegations it was behind the killings.

During a fact-finding mission earlier this year to the South-East Asian nation, Mr. Alston – who serves in an unpaid, personal capacity – investigated the killings in depth.

He interviewed victims or witnesses to 57 incidents involving 96 extrajudicial executions. He met with Government officials of all ranks, including local military commanders as well as the President, as well as with the leaders of the communist rebels’ National Democratic Front (NDF).

In a statement, he said he was “encouraged” by various measures adopted recently by the Government and by the fact that he had met with the country’s Executive Secretary in New York, but also stressed that those responsible for killings must be prosecuted and punished to stop them.

“The Government has undertaken a range of welcome reforms, but the fact remains that not a single soldier has been convicted in any of the cases involving leftist activists,” he said.

“In some parts of the country, the armed forces have followed a deliberate strategy of systematically hunting down the leaders of leftist organization,” Mr. Alston noted. “As commander-in-chief, the President must take concrete steps to end such operations.”

Since 1968, the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) – which has an armed faction, the New People’s Army (NPA), and a civil society group, the NDF – has aimed to revolutionize what it views as the country’s “semi-feudal” society.

The Rapporteur said that the military officers he interviewed “relentlessly pushed” the theory that such extrajudicial executions had in fact been committed by the rebels to simultaneously remove spies while discrediting the Government, and he reviewed all of the documentation provided to support this idea.

“The military’s argument that the leftist activists who have been killed are the victims of a ‘purge’ by the rebels is strikingly unconvincing and can only be viewed as a cynical attempt to displace responsibility,” he said.

The Rapporteur criticized the rebels themselves for participating in some extrajudicial executions of civilians who are not directly involved with the hostilities and the death threats they have made against political opponents.

“The death sentences imposed by their ‘people’s courts’ provide only a veneer of legality for what is really vigilantism or murder,” he said.

During his visit to the Philippines, Mr. Alston also investigated extrajudicial executions in western Mindanao and the Sulu archipelago, which have seen armed conflict involving several insurgent and terrorist groups, including the Moro National Liberation Front, the Moro Islamic Liberation Front and the Abu Sayyaf Group.

Since witnesses in the regions live in great fear and it is difficult to ascertain who is responsible for abuses, he said that bolstered human rights monitoring is crucial to protect the civilian population.

Mr. Alston also looked into the actions of a death squad in Davao City on the island of Mindanao, interviewing victims and witnesses as well as speaking with local police, military officers and the mayor.

“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,” he said in the report. “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.”

*Philippine Government Apathetic Toward Human Rights Abuses By Philip Alston

UNITED Nations special rapporteur Philip Alston gave an oral report to the UN Human Rights Council yesterday of the preliminary findings and recommendations in connection with his 10-day visit to the country in February to investigate extrajudicial killings.

In his report, Alston criticized key government agencies, particularly the Senate Committee on Justice and Human Rights, the Ombudsman, the Department of Justice, and Malacañang for shirking their responsibilities in upholding human rights in the Philippines.

I. INTRODUCTION

1. I visited the Philippines at the invitation of the Government from 12 to 21 February 2007. I met with key government officials, including the President, the Executive Secretary, the National Security Adviser, the Secretaries for Defense and Justice, members of Congress, the Chief Justice, the Chief of Staff of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP), the Chair of the Human Rights Commission, and the Ombudsman. Approximately half of my mission was devoted to meetings with representatives of civil society, in Manila, Baguio and Davao. Pending the submission of my final report to the Human Rights Council, this interim report provides a brief overview of my activities and identifies some of the issues which are of the most concern to me. Comments provided by the Government on a draft of this report are acknowledged with appreciation.

2. The Government cooperated in the organization and conduct of my mission in an exemplary fashion. As I indicated in my departing press conference, the fact of the invitation itself reflected a clear recognition of the gravity of the problem, a willingness to permit outside scrutiny, and a very welcome preparedness to engage on the issues. Civil society was equally engaged and I received very detailed and systematic information which contributed enormously to the success of the mission.

II. PRINCIPAL CONCERNS AND GOVERNMENT RESPONSES

3. In a nutshell, my visit was prompted by reports of a large number of extrajudicial killings, especially of leftist activists and journalists, over the past six years or so. While the estimates vary from 100 to 800 or more, I concluded that it is not productive to play the numbers game and seek to confirm any definitive number. No one disputes that large numbers have been killed. Especially problematic is the fact that the impact has been to intimidate vast numbers of civil society actors, to send a message of vulnerability to all but the most well connected, and to severely undermine political discourse.

4. In considering how to respond to the problem, it is not helpful to dwell unduly at this stage on the reluctance of the military, the police and some key ministers to come to terms with the reality and seriousness of the problem. Suffice it to note that the Government itself was sufficiently motivated to appoint both a high-level independent commission to investigate the problem (the Melo Commission) and a national-level police task force (with military cooperation) to investigate alleged killings promptly and bring prosecutions (Task Force Usig). In recent months, the Government has ordered a range of initiatives, including:
The Department of National Defense (DND) and the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) have been requested to draft an updated document on Command Responsibility;
The Department of Justice (DOJ), DND, and the Commission on Human Rights (CHR) have been asked to constitute a Joint Fact-Finding body in relation to the alleged involvement of military personnel in the killings, and to charge and prosecute those responsible;
The DOJ has been asked to broaden and enhance the Witness Protection Program (WPP);
The Chief Justice of the Supreme Court has announced the creation of 99 Special Courts to try those accused of killings of a political or ideological nature;
The Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) has formally requested assistance from the European Union and others to provide funds in response to the killings;†
An additional 25 million pesos (US$ 510,000) has been provided to the CHR to enable it to better address the problem; and
The Presidential Human Rights Committee (as distinct from the CHR) has been rejuvenated.

5. The fact that there has been such a strong institutional response at the national level is initially encouraging. This in turn has been mirrored by the deep concerns expressed by a diverse range of actors within the international community. Taken together, these responses attest to the high saliency of the issue and the urgent need to identify measures which might help to end the spate of killings. The remainder of this interim report is devoted to that challenge.

III. THE ROAD AHEAD

6. The consequences of a failure to end extrajudicial killings in the Philippines will be dire. Efforts to resolve the various insurgencies will be set back significantly. Incentives to opposition groups to head for the hills rather than seek to engage in democratic politics will be enhanced, and international support for the Government will be undermined. A multifaceted and convincing governmental response is thus urgent.

7. In essence, the problem must be tackled at two different, but complementary, levels. At one level there is indeed a need for more staff, more resources, and more specialist expertise, a better witness-protection programme, and the strengthening of key institutions. The recent Government actions noted above have gone a considerable way in that direction. But such steps are premised almost entirely on the assumption that the key interventions required concern resources and expertise. The hope seems to be that if there can be better investigators, more forensic capacity, more focused judicial action, and more sustained action by the joint military/police task force, the problems will be resolved. But the strong risk is that these measures will treat only some of the symptoms of the crisis, and will fail to address meaningfully two of the most important underlying causes of a great many of the killings.

8. Those causes constitute the second level at which an effective national response is required.
The first cause has been variously described as "vilification," "labeling," or guilt by association. It involves the characterization of most groups on the left of the political spectrum as "front organizations" for armed groups whose aim is to destroy democracy. The result is that a wide range of groups — including human rights advocates, labour union organizers, journalists, teachers unions, women's groups, indigenous organizations, religious groups, student groups, agrarian reform advocates, and others — are classified as "fronts" and then as "enemies of the State" that are accordingly considered to be legitimate targets. The second cause is the extent to which aspects of the Government's counter-insurgency strategy encourage or facilitate the extrajudicial killings of activists and other 'enemies' in certain circumstances. The final report will elaborate at length on this issue.

A. Orders of battle

9. While these two causes tend to operate separately from one another in many settings, they also come together in various ways. The most dramatic illustration is the "order of battle" approach adopted systematically by the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP), and in practice often by the Philippines National Police (PNP). In military terms an order of battle is defined as "an organizational tool used by military intelligence to list and analyze enemy military units'."

The AFP adopts an order of battle in relation to the various regions and sub-regions in which they operate. A copy of a leaked document of this type, from 2006, was provided to me and I am aware of no reason to doubt its authenticity. The document, co-signed by senior military and police officials, calls upon "all members of the intelligence community in the [relevant] region... to adopt and be guided by this update to enhance a more comprehensive and concerted effort against the CPP/NPA/NDF (Communist Party of the Philippines/New People's Army/National Democratic Front)."

The document, some 110 pages in length, lists hundreds of groups and individuals who have been classified, on the basis of intelligence, as members of organizations which the military deems "illegitimate". Newspapers carry almost daily reports of senior military officials urging that such groups be neutralized and calling upon the populace to recognize that to support their candidates in the upcoming elections would be to support the enemy. This practice was openly and adamantly defended by nearly every member of the military with whom I spoke. When a significant number of individuals killed in incidents implicating the armed forces or police are also listed on an order of battle, it raises serious questions about the appropriateness of this practice. It may be, as I was told, a "political war," but when such political war is conducted by soldiers rather than civilians, politics too quickly comes to involve guns as well as words. An interim recommendation emerges from this analysis and is outlined below.

B. Restoring accountability at all levels

10. One of the key impediments to the effectiveness of many of the measures announced by the Government in recent weeks is the fact that many of the accountability mechanisms which are invoked as checks on governmental abuses have been rendered ineffectual in dealing with such issues. On paper, they remain strong. In practice, they are of all too little use, and often this is the result of official design. These issues will be examined in detail in my final report but for present purposes it is sufficient to focus upon some key examples of institutional passivity in the face of large numbers of killings.

11. There is a passivity, bordering on an abdication of responsibility, which affects the way in which key institutions and actors approach their responsibilities in relation to such human rights concerns. For example, in discussions with me, the chair of the Senate Committee on Justice and Human Rights insisted that there was no role for Congress because no new legislation was required, given that murder was already a punishable offense. He openly denied that Congress should play any proactive oversight role regarding the executive's execution of the law. He added that military promotions of those widely suspected of human rights violations were no concern of his Committee and had not been held up by the Congressional Commission on Appointments because no witnesses had come forward to object. He had not and did not intend to hold hearings into the widespread problem of extrajudicial killings because it was a matter for the executive, rather than the Congress.

12. The Secretary of Justice, and his colleagues, were perplexed at the proposition that prosecutors, whose role is absolutely central in the Philippines justice system, had some broader responsibility to take steps to uphold respect for human rights. Instead, their role was seen as a passive one. If a file presented to them was insufficient, their role was simply to return it and hope that the police would do better next time. It was not for them to observe or respond to clearly shoddy dossiers designed to ensure that the police could be said to have done their job while at the same time no prosecution would follow. The Government position is that prosecutors must show "total impartiality" and thus they cannot be directed to adapt their methods of work to ensure that everything possible is done to promote respect for human rights. That position seems to me to be highly problematic.

13. The Ombudsman's office, despite the existence of a separate unit designed to investigate precisely the type of killings that have been alleged, has done almost nothing in recent years in this regard. The Government itself acknowledges that, of 44 complaints submitted from 2002 to 2006 alleging extrajudicial executions attributed to State agents, the Ombudsman's office concluded that it was unable to act on even a single case. While such a result in relation to five or even ten cases might be justifiable, when it reaches the level of 44 cases the conclusion must be that the office is failing in its responsibilities. Many explanations were offered for its inactivity, but none were convincing. Moreover, in at least some situations the office operates as a de facto subsidiary of the Department of Justice.

14. Finally, the executive branch has stymied the legislature's efforts to oversee the execution of laws. Military officers are seldom permitted to appear before Congress other than at budget hearings. A high-ranking government official recounted with genuine puzzlement the efforts of the Committee on Human Rights of the House of Representatives to obtain the testimony of senior military officers. This was considered self-evidently preposterous and was successfully avoided. Official policy, now in the form of a 'memorandum circular' provides that any official requested to "appear before either House of Congress" shall "forward the request... to the President through the Executive Secretary" who "shall consider whether the subject matter of the inquiry is in aid of legislation and/or falls within the scope of executive privilege." This restrictive approach tends to make congressional oversight meaningless in practice.

IV. INTERIM RECOMMENDATIONS

15. I recommend that:

(a) The Government should immediately direct all military officers to cease making public statements linking political or other civil society groups to those engaged in armed insurgencies. If such characterizations are ever to be made it must be by civilian authorities, on the basis of transparent criteria, and in conformity with the human rights provisions of the Constitution and relevant treaties;

(b) The Government should commit to restoring the effectiveness of constitutionally mandated accountability arrangements, especially in relation to the role of Congressional oversight;

(c) In conjunction with the executive branch of Government, the Supreme Court should use its constitutional powers over the practice of law to impress upon prosecutors that they have a duty to the public to uphold and protect human rights by acting to ensure the effective investigation of cases and protection of witnesses;

(d) The Ombudsman's office should begin to take seriously its independent constitutional role in responding to extrajudicial killings plausibly attributed to public officials;

(e) The Government should provide the Special Rapporteur with a copy of an "order of battle" relating to one of the zones in the country in which significant conflict is currently occurring. (We are republishing this article from http://portland.indymedia.org/en/2007/04/357022.shtml)

UN Rapporteur Tinawag Na Bulag, Pipi At Bingi!

MANILA (Mindanao Examiner / 21 Mar) – Maituturing umanong bulag, pipi at bingi si United Nations special rapporteur Philip Alston habang walang tigil ang mga opisyal ng pamahalaang Arroyo na batikusin ito dahil sa kanyang pagkakaugnay sa militar sa patuloy na extrajudicial killings sa bansa.

Ipinahayag ito ngayon ni Defense Secretary Hermogenes Ebdane sa paniniwalang hindi rin papansinin ni Alston ang paglutang bilang mga buhay ng dalawang sinasabing biktima ng political killings base sa listahan ng grupong Karapatan.

Wala aniya silang magagawa kung sarado na rin ang utak ng international community at ni Alston sa rekord at akusasyon ng mga militanteng grupo sa bansa.

"Ayaw pansinin ni Alston yun (listahan). Pagka-ganun ang pinapabigay mo kay Alston, ano sya, bulag, pupi, bingi. Wala tayong magagawa," ani Ebdane.

Binanggit nito na nagbago rin ang paniniwala ngayon sa international community, ang isang tao aniya ay idedeklarang guilty hanggat hindi napapatunayang inosente.

Samantala, naniniwala si Ebdane na hindi naging epektibo ang propaganda ng mga maka-kaliwang grupo matapos na iabswelto ng Commission on Human Rights (CHR) si retired Major General Jovito Palparan at ang kanyang mga dating tauhan hinggil sa political killings. Gayunman, hindi pa nababasa ni Ebdane ang report ng CHR.

Sinabi naman ni Defense Undersecretary at department spokesman Ernesto Carolina na hindi nito pinagdudahan si Palparan sa harap ng kaliwat-kanang pagdidiin sa kanya.

"We never doubted General Palparan… Has he not retired, he would still be serving now in the same area," ani Carolina.

Una nang inulan ng paratang si Palparan hingil sa paglabag sa karapatang pantao mula sa kanyang pagiging lider ng militar sa Mindoro, sa Eastern Visayas hanggang bilang kumander ng 7th Infantry Division sa Central Luzon.

Kaliwa’t-kanan kung tirahin sa Alston dahil sa kanyang pahayag, ngunit hindi naman mababago ng mga batikos ang kanyang finding ng magtungo sa bansa nuong upang imbestigahan ang political killings sa Pilipinas. (Juley Reyes)

U.S. Conducts Hearing On Philippine Political Killings

The Subcommittee on East Asian and Pacific Affairs of the US Senate Committee on Foreign Relations has scheduled a hearing on the extra-judicial killings in the Philippines on Wednesday.

Senator Barbara Boxer (D-California) chairs the Subcommittee.

Two Filipino human rights advocates are scheduled to testify at the hearing, which was called by Senator Boxer, to find ways to end the violence that has claimed the lives of 833 people since President Gloria Arroyo assumed the Presidency in 2001.

The two Filipino witnesses to the hearing, Bishop Eliezer Pascua, general secretary of the United Church of Christ in the Philippines, and Marie Hilao-Enriquez, general secretary of Karapatan (Alliance for the Advancement of Human Rights), were part of a 9-member ecumenical delegation who are now in Washington, D.C. to present a new report on the unabated and unpunished series of politically motivated murders in the Philippines and to urge Congress and U.S. church leaders to exert pressure on the government of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo to put an end to the killings.

The delegation will also meet with the staff of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs, headed by Rep. Tom Lantos (D-California), in a House briefing.

All members of the Philippine delegation will be in attendance at the briefing.Both the Senate hearing and the House briefing were secured by the concerted efforts of church and ecumenical bodies led by the Rev. Bob Edgar, General Secretary of the National Council of Churches of Christ in the USA and a former member of Congress, and grassroots organizations in the US that lobbied their respective members of Congress to have the committees of Sen. Boxer and Rep. Lantos hold these meetings at the time that the high-level church delegation from the Philippines is in Washington, DC.

The report on the political killings in the Philippines will be released during the hearing at the US Senate Foreign Relations Committee and at the briefing with the House Committee Foreign Affairs staff.The Filipino delegation will also present its findings in a conference in Washington starting today until March 14.

The International Ecumenical Conference on Human Rights in the Philippines, has been called by US, Canadian and ecumenical church leaders specifically to address the human rights situation in the Philippines.Others scheduled to testify at the Senate subcommittee committee hearing are Eric John, Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs; Jonathan Farrar, Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Democracy, Human Rights and Labor Department; T. Kumar, advocacy director for Asia and Pacific of Amnesty International USA; and G. Eugene Martin, executive director of the PhilippineFacilitation Project of the US Institute of Peace.

Aside from Pascua and Hilao-Enriquez, the other members of the delegation are Sharon Rose Joy Ruiz-Duremdes, general secretary of National Council of Churches in the Philippines (NCCP); Fr. Jose P. Dizon, executive director of the Workers Assistance Center, Inc. (WAC); Bishop Solito Toquero, resident bishop of the United Methodist Church (UMC); Rev. Deogracias Iniguez, the Roman Catholic bishop of the Diocese of Kalookan; Atty. Edre Olalia, of the Counsels for the Defense of Liberties (CODAL). Also Athea Peñalosa, information and publicity coordinator of the Children’s Rehabilitation Center (CRC; Amirah Ali Lidasan, secretary-general and co-founder of the Moro-Christian People’s Alliance.

Since January 2001, the number of persons killed in political assassinations has reached 833, according to Karapatan. In 2006 alone, there were 207 extra-judicial killings in the Philippines, which translates to an average of four persons killed per week. Prior to the Philippines human rights conference, the delegation also spoke about the condition in the Philippines at the fifth annual Ecumenical Advocacy Days Conference, March 10 – 12, in Washington.

The conference was attended by some 1,300 faith-based and civil society leaders and activists concerned with U.S. foreign and domestic policies.The Philippine report, “’Let the Stones Cry Out‘: An Ecumenical Report on Human Rights in the Philippines and a Call to Action.” was prepared by the National Council of Churches in the Philippines (NCCP).

The 86-page report details cases of political killings and studies the chilling pattern and alarming proportions with which these assaults on life were perpetrated.The report links the unbridled political killings to the Arroyo government’s counter-insurgency program.

“The manner with which the victims were executed or abducted was done professionally and systematically, establishing a connection between the national security strategy and the incidents of violations,” the NCCP said in the report.

The document likewise mentions the poor record of the Philippine government in complying not only with the procedures required of a member of the United Nationsbut also of its failure to adhere to its declared commitments to the UN HumanRights Council.

The report to be released by the NCCP is the latest one to pin the responsibility for the killings to Philippine military and security forces.On February 21, Prof. Philip Alston, Special Rapporteur of the United Nations Human Rights Council on extra-judicial, summary or arbitrary executions, asked the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) to “acknowledge” its involvement in the extra-judicialkillings and conduct a “genuine” investigation.

The UN Special Rapporteur spent ten days in the Philippines to investigate the extra-judicial killings and related human rights violations and met with President Arroyo and other government officials , human rights groups and victims’ familiesOn March 6, the U.S. State Department, in its Country Reports on Human Rights Practices for 2006, said that during the year, a number of unexplained killings in the Philippines were committed “apparently by elements of the security forces.”

The human rights situation in the Philippines has gone so bad that even the commission formed by President Arroyo herself to investigate the political killings came out with a report naming a retired Philippine Army General Jovito Palparan along with other generals as the “prime suspect behind the extra-judicial killings” in the country.

The commission, headed by a former Supreme Court justice, called on President Arroyo to punish those who were responsible for the killings.Victims were killed for their political beliefs, for exercising their freedom of expression and for opting to live by their Christian mission of serving their fellow brethren.

Among those killed were lawyers, human rights defenders, journalists, church leaders, local officials, community leaders and organizers, students, peasants, indigenous leaders, workers, professionals, women and children. Twenty-five church people were among those who were killed. (www.philippinesadvocacy.org)

Gunman Kills U.N. Witness In Summary Executions In Philippines

CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY (Mindanao Examiner / 11 Mar) – An unidentified gunman shot dead a political activist in an attack near an army detachment in the southern Philippines, militant groups said.

Cheche Gandinao, a member of the militant party list group, Bayan Muna, was killed in Misamis Oriental’s Salay town on Saturday. The murder of the 56-year old activist came barely a month after she testified in a UN probe headed by Philip Alston on extra-judicial killings in Davao City.

Alston was convinced that the military was behind most of the killings of political activists in the Philippines.

Gandinao, the 14th activist killed in the Philippine this year, was shot at least four times in the body and head. Her father-in-law, a peasant leader, was also killed in similar attack in February.

Gandinao’s killer fled on motorcycle after the attack which occurred just several blocks away from the military detachment manned by militias.

No group or individual claimed responsibility for the attack, but militant groups blamed the military for the killing. (Mindanao Examiner)

Gov't Overreacting On UN Report– Bayan Muna

Bayan Muna expressed its appreciation Thursday to Professor Philip Alston, United Nations Special Rapporteur on Extrajudicial, Summary, or Special Executions, for fairly listening to all sides and challenged the Arroyo administration to just admit its militarist policies instead of overreacting, and displaying shameful defensive statements.

Bayan Muna said the Arroyo government's defensive statements were provoked by UN Rapporteur's initial report that somehow proves Malacanang and the Armed Forces of the Philippine's (AFP) culpability in the killings of activists and innocent civilians.

Bayan Muna said today that government officials should instead acknowledge the fact the extrajudicial killings were happening due to its militarist policies as a result of its desperation to eliminate critics of the government.

In Alston's initial report he said that he is convinced that military is behind killings but just in state of denial.

Bayan Muna's belief that the government is not really sincere in solving the killings is confirmed by government agencies statements against Alston, when it was Arroyo herself that sought the help of international bodies to conduct independent investigations.

"Alston is right in his observation that the government don't seem to truly acknowledge the need to respond seriously, effectively and authentically the political killings in the country and has instead threw harsh statements against the UN official," Bayan Muna said in a press statement.

Bayan Muna also appreciated Alston for observing the concerted efforts by government agencies in 'circumventing' the political space allowed leftists in entering the democratic system.

Alston's initial report also confirms further that the Arroyo government is somehow resolute in physically eliminating the progressives where he said that in some instances, such intimidation efforts had escalated into judicial execution.

Bayan Muna also said that it is unfair to Alston to be accused by the government of siding with the left because he already gave all parties the chance to provide evidences and respective statements. Bayan Muna said 'the truth always prevails.'

In Philippines: Speech Of Professor Philip Alston, Special Rapporteur Of The United Nations Human Rights Council


I have spent the past ten days in the Philippines at the invitation of the Government in order to inquire into the phenomenon of extra-judicial executions.

I am very grateful to the Government for the unqualified cooperation extended to me. During my stay here I have met with virtually all of the relevant senior officials of Government.

They include the President, the Executive Secretary, the National Security Adviser, the Secretaries for Defence, Justice, DILG and the Peace Process.

I have also met with a significant number of members of Congress on different sides of the political spectrum, the Chief Justice, the Chief of Staff of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP), the Chair of the Human Rights Commission, the Ombudsman, the members of both sides of the Joint Monitoring Committee, and representatives of the MNLF and MILF.

Of particular relevance to my specific concerns, I also met with Task Force Usig, and with the Melo Commission, and I have received the complete dossier compiled by TF Usig, as well as the report of the Melo Commission, the and the responses to its findings by the AFP and by retired Maj-Gen Palparan.

I have also visited Baguio and Davao and met with the regional Human Rights Commission offices, local PNP and AFP commanders, and the Mayor of Davao, among others. Equally importantly, roughly half of my time here was devoted to meetings with representatives of civil society, in Manila, Baguio, andDavao. Through their extremely valuable contributions in the form of documentation and detailed testimony I have learned a great deal.

Let me begin by acknowledging several important elements.

The first is that the Government’s invitation to visit reflects a clear recognition of the gravity of the problem, a willingness to permit outside scrutiny, and a very welcome preparedness to engage on this issue.

The assurances that I received from the President, in particular, were very encouraging.
Second, I note that my visit takes place within the context of a counter-insurgency operation which takes place on a range of fronts, and I do not in any way underestimate the resulting challenges facing for the Government and the AFP.

Third, I wish to clarify that my formal role is to report to the UN Human Rights Council and to the Government on the situation I have found. I consider that the very fact of my visit has already begun the process of acting as a catalyst to deeper reflection on these issues both within the national and international settings.

Finally, I must emphasize that the present statement is only designed to give a general indication of some, but by no means all, of the issues to be addressed, and the recommendations put forward, in my final report.

I expect that will be available sometime within the next three months. Sources of information. The first major challenge for my mission was to obtain detailed and well supported information. I have been surprised by both the amount and the quality of information provided to me. Most key Government agencies are organized and systematic in much of their data collection and classification.

Similarly,Philippines civil society organizations are generally sophisticated and professional. I sought, and obtained, meetings across the entire political spectrum. I leave the Philippines with a wealth of information to be processed in the preparation of my final report.

But the question has still been posed as to whether the information provided to me by either all, or at least certain, local NGO groups can be considered reliable. The word ‘propaganda’ was used by many of my interlocutors.

What I took them to mean was that the overriding goal of the relevant groups in raising EJE questions was to gain political advantage in the context of a broader battle for public opinion and power, and that the HR dimensions were secondary at best.

Some went further to suggest that many of the cases were fabricated, or at least trumped up, to look more serious than they are. I consider it essential to respond to these concerns immediately.

First, there is inevitably a propaganda element in such allegations.

The aim is to win public sympathy and to discredit other actors. But the existence of a propaganda dimension does not, in itself, destroy the credibility of the information and allegations. I would insist, instead, on the need to apply several tests relating to credibility.
First, is it only NGOs from one part of the political spectrum who are making these allegations? The answer is clearly ‘no’.

Human rights groups in the Philippines range across the entire spectrum in terms of their political sympathies, but I met no groups who challenged the basic fact that large numbers of extra-judicial executions are taking place, even if they disagreed on precise figures.

Second, how compelling is the actual information presented? I found there was considerable variation ranging from submissions which were entirely credible and contextually aware all the way down to some which struck me as superficial and dubious.

But the great majority are closer to the top of that spectrum than to the bottom.

Third, has the information proved credible under ‘cross-examination’. My colleagues and I heard a large number of cases in depth and we probed the stories presented to us in order to ascertain their accuracy and the broader context.

As a result, I believe that I have gathered a huge amount of data and certainly much more than has been made available to any one of the major national inquiries.

My focus goes well beyond beyond that adopted by either TF Usig or the Melo Commission, both of which are concerned essentially with political and media killings. Those specific killings are, in many ways, a symptom of a much more extensive problem and we should not permit our focus to be limited artificially.

The TF Usig/Melo scope of inquiry is inappropriate for me for several reasons: (a) The approach is essentially reactive. It is not based on an original assessment of what is going on in the country at large, but rather on what a limited range of CSOs report.

As a result, the focus then is often shifted (unhelpfully) to the orientation of the CSO, the quality of the documentation in particular cases, etc.; (b) Many killings are not reported, or not pursued, and for good reason; and (c) A significant proportion of acknowledged cases of ‘disappearances’ involve individuals who have been killed but who are not reflected in the figures.

How many have been killed?The numbers game is especially unproductive, although a source of endless fascination. Is it 25, 100, or 800? I don’t have a figure. But I am certain that the number is high enough to be distressing. Even more importantly, numbers are not what count.

The impact of even a limited number of killings of the type alleged is corrosive in many ways. It intimidates vast numbers of civil society actors, it sends a message of vulnerability to all but the most well connected, and it severely undermines the political discourse which is central to a resolution of the problems confronting this country.

Permit me to make a brief comment on the term ‘unexplained killings’, which is used by officials and which I consider to be inapt and misleading.

It may be appropriate in the context of a judicial process but human rights inquiries are more broad-ranging and one does not have to wait for a court to secure a conviction before one can conclude that human rights violations are occurring.

The term ‘extrajudicial killings’ which has a long pedigree is far more accurate and should be used. It may help to specify the types of killing which are of particular concern in the Philippines.

Killings by military and police, and by the NPA or other groups, in course of counter-insurgency. To the extent that such killings take place in conformity with the rules of international humanitarian law they fall outside my mandate.

Killings not in the course of any armed engagement but in pursuit of a specific counter-insurgency operation in the field.

Killings, whether attributed to the military, the police, or private actors, of activists associated with leftist groups and usually deemed or assumed to be covertly assisting CPP-NPA-NDF.

Private actors include hired thugs in the pay of politicians, landowners, corporate interests, and others.

Vigilante, or death squad, killings· Killings of journalists and other media persons.‘Ordinary’ murders facilitated by the sense of impunity that exists.

The response of Government to the crisis of extra-judicial executions varies dramatically. There has been a welcome acknowledgment of the seriousness of the problem at the very top.

At the executive level the messages have been very mixed and often unsatisfactory. And at the operational level, the allegations have too often been met with a response of incredulity, mixed with offence.

When I have sought explanations of the killings I have received a range of answers. (i) The allegations are essentially propaganda. I have addressed this dimension already. (ii) The allegations are fabricated.

Much importance was attached to two persons who had been listed as killed, but who were presented to me alive. Two errors, in circumstances which might partly explain the mistakes, do very little to discredit the vast number of remaining allegations. (iii) The theory that the ‘correct, accurate, and truthful’ reason for the recent rise in killings lies in purges committed by the CPP/NPA.

This theory was relentlessly pushed by the AFP and many of my Government interlocutors. But we must distinguish the number of 1,227 cited by the military from the limited number of cases in which the CPP/NPA have acknowledged, indeed boasted, of killings.

While such cases have certainly occurred, even those most concerned about them, such as members of Akbayan, have suggested to me that they could not amount to even 10% of the total killings. The evidence offered by the military in support of this theory is especially unconvincing.
Human rights organizations have documented very few such cases.

The AFP relies instead on figures and trends relating to the purges of the late 1980s, and on an alleged CPP/NPA document captured in May 2006 describing Operation Bushfire.

In the absence of much stronger supporting evidence this particular document bears all the hallmarks of a fabrication and cannot be taken as evidence of anything other than disinformation. (iv) Some killings may have been attributable to the AFP, but they were committed by rogue elements. There is little doubt that some such killings have been committed.

The AFP needs to give us precise details and to indicate what investigations and prosecutions have been undertaken in response. But, in any event, the rogue elephant theory does not explain or even address the central questions with which we are concerned.

Some major challenges for the future (a) Acknowledgement by the AFP.

The AFP remains in a state of almost total denial (as its official response to the Melo Report amply demonstrates) of its need to respond effectively and authentically to the significant number of killings which have been convincingly attributed to them.

The President needs to persuade the military that its reputation and effectiveness will be considerably enhanced, rather than undermined, by acknowledging the facts and taking genuine steps to investigate.

When the Chief of the AFP contents himself with telephoning Maj-Gen Palparan three times in order to satisfy himself that the persistent and extensive allegations against the General were entirely unfounded, rather than launching a thorough internal investigation, it is clear that there is still a very long way to go. (b)Moving beyond the Melo CommissionIt 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. (c) The need to restore accountability.

The focus on TF Usig and Melo is insufficient. The enduring and much larger challenge is to restore the various accountability mechanisms that the Philippines Constitution and Congress have put in place over the years, too many of which have been systematically drained of their force in recent years.

I will go into detail in my final report, but suffice it to note for present purposes that Executive Order 464, and its replacement, Memorandum Circular 108, undermine significantly the capacity of Congress to hold the executive to account in any meaningful way. (d) Witness protection.

The vital flaw which undermines the utility of much of the judicial system is the problem of virtual impunity that prevails. This, in turn, is built upon the rampant problem of witness vulnerability.

The present message is that if you want to preserve your life expectancy, don’t act as a witness in a criminal prosecution for killing. Witnesses are systematically intimidated and harassed.

In a relatively poor society, in which there is heavy dependence on community and very limited real geographical mobility, witnesses are uniquely vulnerable when the forces accused of killings are all too often those, or are linked to those, who are charged with ensuring their security. The WPP is impressive – on paper.

In practice, however, it is deeply flawed and would seem only to be truly effective in a very limited number of cases. The result, as one expert suggested to me, is that 8 out of 10 strong cases, or 80% fail to move from the initial investigation to the actual prosecution stage. (e) Acceptance of the need to provide legitimate political space for leftist groupsAt the national level, there has been a definitive abandonment of President Ramos’ strategy of reconciliation.

This might be termed the Sinn Fein strategy. It involves the creation of an opening — the party-list system — for leftist groups to enter the democratic political system, while at the same time acknowledging that some of those groups remain very sympathetic to the armed struggle being waged by illegal groups (the IRA in the Irish case, or the NPA in the Philippines case). The goal is to provide an incentive for such groups to enter mainstream politics and to see that path as their best option.

Neither the party-list system nor the repeal of the Anti-Subversion Act has been reversed by Congress. But, the executive branch, openly and enthusiastically aided by the military, has worked resolutely to circumvent the spirit of these legislative decisions by trying to impede the work of the party-list groups and to put in question their right to operate freely.

The idea is not to destroy the NPA but to eliminate organizations that support many of its goals and do not actively disown its means. While non-violent in conception, there are cases in which it has, certainly at the local level, spilled over into decisions to extra-judicially execute those who cannot be reached by legal process. (f) Re-evaluate problematic aspects of counter-insurgency strategy.

The increase in extra-judicial executions in recent years is attributable, at least in part, to a shift in counterinsurgency strategy that occurred in some areas, reflecting the considerable regional variation in the strategies employed, especially with respect to the civilian population.

In some areas, an appeal to hearts-and-minds is combined with an attempt to vilify left-leaning organizations and to intimidate leaders of such organizations.

In some instances, such intimidation escalates into extra-judicial execution. This is a grave and serious problem and one which I intend to examine in detail in my final report.

The Philippines remains an example to all of us in terms of the peaceful ending of martial law by the People’s Revolution, and the adoption of a Constitution reflecting a powerful commitment to ensure respect for human rights.

The various measures ordered by the President in response to Melo constitute important first steps, but there is a huge amount that remains to be done.(Speech is made 21 Feb 2007 in Manila at the closing of Professor Alston investigation on summary killings in Philippines. The speech is available on this URL http://unphilippines.wordpress.com)

UN Envoy Accuses Philippine Army Of Being "In A State Of Almost Total Denial" About Wave Of Political Killings

AND MANY OF THESE KILLINGS killings have been "convincingly attributed to them", said special rapporteur Philip Alston.

One human rights group says since President Gloria Arroyo took power in 2001, 830 activists have been killed.Mr Alston urged President Arroyo to confront what he called a culture of virtual impunity in the legal system.

The Philippines army, which has been battling communist rebels for almost four decades, has blamed rogue elements for some of the killings.But Mr Alston said that such explanations were insufficient.

The army "needs to give us precise details and to indicate what investigations and prosecutions have been undertaken in response".Although critical of the president, the UN rapporteur stressed that he did not believe that there was any political sanction for the killings.

Alston presented his provisional findings in Manila"I do not believe that there's a policy at the top designed to direct that these killings to take place," said Mr Alston.

The human rights group Karapatan says that 832 extra-judicial killings since 2001 can be blamed on the security forces. Of these, it says 356 are left-wing activists.

The Philippines armed forces have been fighting a Communist insurgency since 1969, with an estimated 40,000 people killed, and in recent years they have also had to face attacks by Muslim radicals.

But military chief General Hermogenes Esperon denied that extra-judicial killings were used, and said he would prosecute any soldier found doing this, Reuters news agency reports.

Philip Alston has spent 10 days in the Philippines investigating the killings, and is due to present a full report on his findings in three months' time.(BBC News)