February 14, 2007
Dear Brothers and Sisters in Carmel,
We in the Justice and Peace and Integrity of Creation (JPIC) Manila is informing you that the The UN representative for political killings is here for the investigation. The Philippine government is trying again to show that they don't have any involvement in the political killings and trying to manipulate the truth.
For us in the Justice and Peace we cannot just close our eyes and mouth seeing the rampant human rights violations perpetuated most of the time by the state authority.
Please help us to pray that the United Nation's investigations on the political killings - the truth will come out from the testimonies of the victim’s relatives and witnesses and we should denounced the manufactured and one sided investigations of the government's - Task Force Usig, and Melo Commission.
May God bless us all,
JPIC Order of Carmelites
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PRESIDENT MAY BE LIABLE - MELO REPORT
STATE ACCOUNTABLE FOR KILLINGS, SAYS COMMISSION
By Michael Lim Ubac
Philippine Daily Inquirer Inquirer
Last updated 03:25am (Mla time) 02/24/2007
MANILA, Philippines -- President Macapagal-Arroyo may be held accountable under international law if the political killings remain unresolved and unabated under her watch, according to the Melo Commission.
In its 86-page report, the commission led by former Supreme Court Justice Jose Melo warned that the government could not “sit idly by and refuse to act.”
“Ultimately, the State has the responsibility of protecting its citizens and making sure that their fundamental liberties are respected,” it said.
The commission drew attention to a growing worldwide consensus for state responsibility for non-state acts.
“T[his] posits that if the State fails to investigate, prosecute or redress private, non-state acts in violation of fundamental liberties, it is in effect aiding the perpetrators of such violations, for which it could be held responsible under international law,” it said.
But Press Secretary Ignacio Bunye, who furnished the Malacañang Press Corps a copy of the report on Thursday, countered: “Accusations do not solve the problem; actions do.”
Bunye said that “from the beginning, the government has strongly condemned the killings of activists and journalists,” and stressed that Ms Arroyo formed the Melo Commission “in order to get to the bottom of the political killings that have plagued the nation for many generations.”
He pointed out that the government had even invited members of the international community, such as the European Union and United Nations Special Rapporteur Philip Alston, to help expand the reach of the investigation.
Bunye said Ms Arroyo had “taken decisive action both before the [Melo] report and also in answer to the report, to move the nation forward and stop these killings once and for all.”
He added: “The President will continue to take the necessary actions to lay out the findings, to seek the truth and take decisive action to stop these killings.
“The President calls on the entire nation to show calm and resolve as we move into the volatile campaign season.”
Bunye also said he was “disappointed” that the Melo Report itself was incomplete, “not for want of sincere efforts to get to the bottom of things, but mainly due to the lack of cooperation of a number of victims and their families.”
Int’l responsibility
According to the Melo Report, an illegal act that violates human rights and is initially not directly imputable to a state—for example, because it is the act of private person or because the person responsible has not been identified—“can lead to international responsibility of the State, not because of the act itself, but because of the lack of due diligence to prevent the violation or to respond to it.”
The report highlighted the crucial role to be played by the President in stopping the killings, which were largely blamed by the commission on the military, particularly retired Maj. Gen. Jovito Palparan, whom militants groups had dubbed the “Butcher” of Mindoro and Samar.
“If extrajudicial executions are to be stopped, the political will to do what is right however great the cost must pervade all levels of government so that our beloved country can move toward the greater ideals of democracy and justice; it must start with the President who must pursue the prevention and prosecution of extrajudicial killings with urgency and fervor,” the report said.
It also urged her to reiterate “in the strongest possible manner” her condemnation of the killings and her “determination and firm resolve to stop the same.”
“The President and all the departments of the government should make clear to all members of the police and military forces that extrajudicial executions will not be countenanced under any circumstances,” it added.
But the commission also said it was not ignorant of the crimes committed by insurgents against soldiers: “Understandable, justified, and commendable, in fact, is the fervor with which the State, through the military, feels the need to avenge these heroes who perished in the defense of the country. However, this should not be at the cost of the freedom we are protecting in the first place.”
No investigations
The Melo Commission also took to task both the military and police for their kid-glove treatment of Palparan.
The report quoted Philippine National Police Deputy Director General Avelino Razon Jr., head of Task Force Usig, as saying that Palparan had neither been summoned nor formally investigated by the panel formed last year to look into the political killings.
Razon said the task force could not explain the reason for the killings, and refused to attribute it to Ms Arroyo’s declaration of an all-out war against communist insurgents.
But Razon said he would have preferred that Palparan explain why there was an apparent increase in the killings in areas where he was assigned.
Armed Forces Chief of Staff Gen. Hermogenes Esperon himself admitted that no formal investigation had been conducted because no formal complaints were filed, the report said.
Palparan, who served in the AFP for 33 years before his retirement last Sept. 11, was invited by the Melo Commission to shed light on the heightened number of killings of media workers and leftist activists in the areas where he was assigned.
These areas included Central Luzon (September 2005 to September 2006), Eastern Visayas (February 2005 to August 2006), and Mindoro (May 2001 to April 2003). (Story on Page A19.)
When asked by the commission how he earned the tag of “butcher,” Palparan said it was part of the “propaganda war” of the Communist Party of the Philippines-New People’s Army, according to the report.
‘Shoot them’
The report said that in the course of his testimony before the commission, Palparan confirmed having made the following statements:
“My order to my soldiers is that, if they are certain that there are armed rebels in the house or yard, shoot them. It will just be too bad if civilians are killed in the process. We are sorry if you are killed in the crossfire.”
“There would be some collateral damage, but it will be short and tolerable. The enemy would blow it up as a massive violation of human rights. But to me, it would just be necessary incidents.”
“Sorry na lang kung may madamay na civilian. The deaths of civilians and local officials were ‘small sacrifices’ brought about by the military’s anti-insurgency campaign.”
“They cannot be stopped completely. The killings, I would say are necessary incidents in a conflict because they (the rebels) are violent. It’s not necessary that the military alone should be blamed.”
From the tenor of Palparan’s answers, “he entertained the possibility that some of his soldiers may have been responsible for the killings although they were not directed by their commander,” the report said.
SEE THE FULL COMMISSION REPORT BELOW
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http://www.inquirer.net/verbatim/Meloreport.pdf
2 comments:
Arroyo orders Melo report released
First posted 02:15:13 (Mla time) February 17, 2007
Michael Lim Ubac
Inquirer
MANILA, Philippines -- The European Union and the United Nations’ special rapporteur may expect to receive on Monday copies of the Melo Commission’s report on the extrajudicial killings, National Security Adviser Norberto Gonzales said yesterday.
The disclosure came on the same day that police and the human rights group Karapatan announced the killing of leftist student leader Farley Alcantara II in Camarines Norte on Thursday. Alcantara was shot dead by a lone gunman who managed to get away.
Gonzales said in an interview that President Macapagal-Arroyo gave him the go-signal on Tuesday to transmit copies of the “thick document” requested by the European Commission, the EU’s executive body, and UN Special Rapporteur Philip Alston.
“We’re all after the truth, so we will have to release it to appropriate bodies,” he said.
But the media will not have access to the report containing the Melo Commission’s findings on the unabated killings of journalists and leftist activists since Ms Arroyo took power in 2001.
The report was submitted to Ms Arroyo late last month by the commission chair, retired Supreme Court Justice Jose Melo. Its contents have yet to be made public.
Asked what took him so long to implement the President’s directive, Gonzales said he had to make “some transmittals” to the offices of Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita and Press Secretary Ignacio Bunye.
“But I was asked by the President to make the decision as early as Tuesday,” he said.
No major discrepancies
Gonzales told the Inquirer that the report had no “major discrepancies” from the earlier statement made by Melo linking the military, particularly retired Maj. Gen. Jovito Palparan, to some of the killings.
He reiterated the Palace’s position that the report was “incomplete.”
“It’s a preliminary report only. That’s why we said that we will release it when [it] is already complete,” he said, adding that the Melo Commission was “expected to continue” with its investigation.
He said the commission had no “timeframe” to finish the probe and “come up with its conclusions.”
Gonzales wondered why critics of the President had accused Malacañang of hiding the report: “I don’t know why this issue came out.”
Asked why Malacañang described the report as “inconclusive,” he said: “It only covered 10 percent of what should have been covered.”
Only one source
Ermita said on Thursday that the latest killings in Samar, Bicol and Misamis Oriental should be incorporated into the commission’s final report.
He took militant groups to task for snubbing the invitation of the commission to testify at its hearings, and for supposedly bloating its list of victims.
Asked about the reason for the withholding of the report, Ermita said Malacañang did not want the public to think that the report was based on only one source—Palparan and other generals who served as resource persons.
It was Bunye who told reporters on Thursday that the Palace was temporarily withholding the report.
“The government intends to work closely with the UN to get at the root of the matter although we have held the first Melo report from distribution because it’s still incomplete and, at this point, inconclusive,” he said.
Bunye welcomed the statement of the families of slain activists that they would fully cooperate with Alston and his team.
“This will complete the picture that the Melo Commission could not understandably achieve in view of the refusal of the families to testify before the probe body,” he said.
He added that with the inputs of the UN and “other well-meaning agencies, hopefully we can come up with a more comprehensive appreciation of the issue and undertake all means to resolve it permanently and close the book on it.”
Gonzales said yesterday that he expected the issue of the extrajudicial killings to be resolved soon.
He said the independent inquiries by the EU and the UN team would “tell us how to proceed.”
“Their recommendations are most welcome by the government,” he said.
Oplan Bantay Laya
Bayan Muna, the militant party-list group that lost at least 127 of its leaders and members to extrajudicial killings, lauded the planned creation of special courts devoted entirely to such cases.
But Bayan Muna Representatives Satur Ocampo and Teodoro Casiño told the Inquirer that the initiative of Chief Justice Reynato Puno was bound to fail without Ms Arroyo’s unequivocal support.
They specifically want Ms Arroyo to “rescind” the so-called Oplan Bantay Laya, a military campaign purportedly targeting the Communist Party of the Philippines, its armed wing the New People’s Army, and groups tagged as its fronts.
“What is more crucial at this point is for the President to issue an order to all state security forces not to engage in such killings, to relieve military commanders where the killings happen ... and overhaul the government’s counterinsurgency program,” Casiño said.
To make the special courts work, Ms Arroyo “must first end the policy of abetting, encouraging and sanctioning political killings as contained in Oplan Bantay Laya,” according to Ocampo.
“This policy and counterinsurgency operation-plan have rendered useless all previous investigative bodies, and continue to make justice elusive for victims’ families, and may sabotage the special courts formed by the Chief Justice,” he said in a statement.
Of no use
After meeting on Thursday with the UN team led by Alston, Puno announced that he was forming special courts to concentrate on extrajudicial killings.
Karapatan has listed 832 alleged summary executions since 2001. Of the number, 127 of the victims belonged to Bayan Muna, according to its media coordinator Tonyo Cruz.
“Unfortunately, the executive branch does not share the commitment of Chief Justice Puno to end, investigate and prosecute such cases,” Ocampo said.
He said the special courts would practically be of no use, and predicted that prosecutors and investigators—who are under the executive branch—would “doom all cases against the military and police under the present circumstances.”
Palparan cases dropped
According to Ocampo, all cases against Palparan had been dropped by the Department of Justice.
“The prevailing policy of Ms Arroyo, as implemented by Justice Secretary Raul Gonzalez and Norberto Gonzales, will make it impossible for victims to successfully file cases before the special courts,” he said. With a report from Christian V. Esguerra
From: ABS-CBN National (as of 5:36 PM)
MALACAÑANG FINALLY AGREES TO RELEASE MELO REPORT TO PUBLIC
Malacañang agreed to release on Thursday the results of the investigation of the Melo Commission on extrajudicial killings in the country hours after the United Nations special rapporteur called for its public release Wednesday, ANC reported.
Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita said the release was in response to calls made by the Catholic Bishops' Conference of the Philippines and other groups including the UN and European Union for public disclosure of the contents of the Melo report.
Ermita said Press Secretary Ignacio Bunye will release the report on Thursday.
Ermita maintained the "preliminary" status of the Melo report.
President Arroyo's executive secretary also defended government actions on the spate of extrajudicial killings. He said that the formation of the Philippine National Police Task Force Usig and Melo Commission is proof that the government is serious in resolving the issue of extrajudicial killings.
He said the government’s response was sufficient for the people not to have doubts that the government is hiding something on the issue of the extrajudicial killings.
Earlier in the day, Philip Alston, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights’ special rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions, recommended the public release of the Melo report as he said that the military is in denial of the extrajudicial killings in the country.
In a press conference, Alston provided initial findings of his investigation into the situation of the extrajudicial killings in the country.
Alston also recommended the re-evaluation of the government's anti-insurgency program and the strengthening of its witness protection program.
The Malacañang-created investigative commission headed by former Supreme Court justice Jose Melo submitted its findings to the President on January 30. Malacañang , however, refused to disclose the results of the investigation, which it said were "initial" or "incomplete."
The government acceded to release the findings of the Melo Commission last week but only to Alston and to representatives of the EU.
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