The Melo Farce Cebu Daily News Last updated 11:41am (Mla time) 02/06/2007 The Melo Commission, chaired by retired Supreme Court Justice Jose Melo, confirmed that “majority of the victims were leftist-activist militants,” and the suspects were the military. “(But) we don’t want to tag the whole military establishment, only elements of the military who were allowed to do their thing without supervision from higher officers,” Melo explained. Melo, in an attempt to show even-handedness, spread the blame over several groups, saying “some killings were attributed to politicians, some security guards of landlords but majority of the killings pointed to these military elements (as culprits).” The report did single out retired Maj. Gen. Jovito Palparan, who had been branded by leftists as the “executioner.” “You know, he has said he inspired them (the killings),” Melo told the press. “You can hook the fish through the mouth.” Melo was referring to press interviews in which Palparan had admitted having “inspired” some people to avenge the crimes committed in their communities by the New People’s Army, whom Palparan and the Armed Forces had accused of responsibility for the depredations, in the context of the administration’s anti-insurgency campaign. Although the report recommended holding Palparan and his cohorts responsible, it fell short of recommending their prosecution, raising questions over where the report would go from there. This failure to carry it beyond the “command responsibility” issue represents a fatal flaw in the report, which the Melo Commission completed in six months. President Arroyo showed her true colors at the vin d’honneur in Malacańang when she told the diplomatic corps that both the Left and the Right were responsible for the killings and that she believed “99.0 percent of the military were good, patriotic and hardworking.” For his part, Armed Forces Chief of Staff General Hermogenes Esperon lost no time in extricating the military from responsibility for the killings. After the Melo Commission submitted its report, the President issued a set of instructions. The key points call for the commission to continue its work and “submit supplemental reports from time to time”; the formation of a fact-finding committee from the justice and defense departments to work with the Commission on Human Rights to “delve deeper” into the involvement of military personnel in the killings and prosecuting “culpable parties”; and the defense department and the Armed Forces to come up with a definition of command responsibility. The key question is, what to do with Palparan. The head of the Philippine National Police’s Task Force Usig, Deputy Director General Avelino Razon, didn’t appear eager to take action against Palparan. He said the PNP had to ascertain whether evidence warranted the filing of cases against Palparan. All things point to a whitewash. The six-month effort of the commission has come to naught. The Melo Commission should quit and stop this farce. – Amando Doronila, Inquirer To subscribe to the Cebu Daily News newspaper, call +63 2 (032) 233-6046 for Metro Manila and Metro Cebu or email your subscription request here. Copyright 2007 Cebu Daily News. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.