Press Statement 
January 31, 2007 

Reference:        Ruth Cervantes, Public Information Officer [Mobile No. 09153002684] 

                        Jigs Clamor, Deputy Secretary General [ Mobile No. 09228149715]

 

New probe should be independent of Arroyo's commissioned panel 

 

To placate critics and ease international pressure on her government, Mrs. Arroyo has once again called for a probe on the killings, this time with the participation of foreign observers. The Arroyo administration is seeking the European Union's help in probing the killings under the umbrella of Melo Commission according to Palace spokesperson Ignacio Bunye. 

 

Just as it did with the creation of the Melo Commission, the Palace is bent on using the investigation to clear the Arroyo administration of its responsibility. 

 

Ms Arroyo's instructions for the Department of National Defense to form part of a fact-finding body with the Commission on Human Right, is totally unacceptable, if not ridiculous. Aside from the fact that the Philippine Constitution guarantees CHR's independence, DND together with the AFP are presiding over the spate of extrajudicial killings and gross human rights violations in the name of Oplan Bantay Laya and its enhanced National Internal Security Program (NISP). 

 

KARAPATAN believes that the Filipino people, especially the close to a thousand victims of killings and frustrated killings, deserve a deeper probe that is independent of the panel commissioned by Mrs. Arroyo. 

 

The new probe body must adhere to international standards and should be composed of people acceptable to the victims of human rights violations and the human rights community in general.   

 

We welcome the visit of Mr. Philip Alston, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Extrajudicial killings and Summary Execution who is due to arrive in February. But we are likewise alarmed on reports that victims of human rights violations are being prevented from meeting with.   We have received information that the National Security Council is doing the itinerary for Mr. Alston's visit. An agency that plays a crucial role in implementing Oplan Bantay Laya should not have a hand in hosting or designing the Special Rapporteur's official mission.### 
 
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HUSTISYA
 
Another GMA probe will not stop the killings & disappearances, relatives of victims say 

 

"If President Arroyo really wanted to stop the killings, all she has to do is to order a stop to these."

 

This was the statement today of two victims' organizations - the Victims of the Arroyo United for Justice (HUSTISYA) and the Families of Desaparecidos for Justice (DESAPARECIDOS) - as they reiterated their call for justice and independent, thorough investigations into the extrajudicial killings and enforced disappearances under President Arroyo. 

 

The statement of HUSTISYA and DESAPARECIDOS was in reaction to Pres. Arroyo's order to form a joint fact-finding body composed of the Justice and Defense departments and the Commission on Human Rights to probe "deeper" the military involvement in the political killings. 

 

"Our earlier doubts have been proven.  The report of the Melo Commission is the icing that tops the whitewash cake of the Arroyo regime, and has cleared Arroyo of any accountability on the killings and disappearances.  Whatever 'joint fact-finding body' formed by Arroyo will only be a 'joint whitewash body, and we will never trust it," said Evangeline Hernandez, HUSTISYA convener. 

 

"Mrs. Arroyo and her top Cabinet officials should be made accountable for the extrajudicial killings and enforced disappearances because their design and approval of Oplan Bantay Laya is equivalent to pulling the trigger in the killings and giving the direct order to the disappearances," Hernandez said. 

 

Hernandez said a number of international fact-finding missions have already visited the country which has pointed to Arroyo administration's culpability to the gross human rights violations in the country. She cited the International Solidarity Mission in August 2005, and the fact-finding mission of international groups of peasants, workers and lawyers last year, including that of Amnesty International. 

 

Erlinda Cadapan, a DESAPARECIDOS member and HUSTISYA co-convener, meanwhile said they welcome the arrival this February of Mr. Philip Alston, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Extrajudicial, Summary or Arbitrary Executions.  Portajada said the two victims' groups hope that Mr. Alston will have an audience with the victims' families, so that he can hear the cases straight from the aggrieved.   She added that they will seek other bodies which will independently and objectively probe the human rights violations. 

 

Cadapan said that the very fact that Malacaņang and the Melo Commission have been putting the blame on the victims for the failure of their investigation all the more proves how they fail the standards of an independent probe body, and why they do not deserve to be trusted by the victims.###