Left to cooperate only with ‘independent probe’ into slays

By Michael Lim Ubac
Inquirer
Last updated 07:16pm (Mla time) 01/31/2007

MANILA -- Militant party-list groups said they would cooperate with an official inquiry into extrajudicial killings only if an independent body, with the power to protect witnesses, is promptly created by Malacañang.

In an interview, Bayan Muna Representative Teodoro Casiño dared President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo to create a fact-finding body separate from the Melo Commission, the body chaired by retired Supreme Court justice Jose Melo.

He said any new investigation should neither be under the umbrella of the commission nor "use the framework of the commission."

"At most, the report [of the Melo Commission] should be used as mere reference. The new body should be truly independent, adhere to international human rights standards, and be composed of members acceptable to the victims' families and human rights community," said Casiño.

The Bayan Muna representative said the new body should have "complete access to Armed Forces documents as well as the power to protect witnesses."

"Where's the report? We want to see it and analyze it in full," said Anakpawis Representative Crispin Beltran even as he supported the formation of a new investigating body.

He called on Arroyo to make public the findings of the Melo Commission although "none of the families of the victims support or laud" it.

Beltran said the President's order was "all for show," and that she was going to use the report and "flaunt it" before the international community as proof that she had acted on the extrajudicial killings.

He said Arroyo's "generic and almost scripted response" to the Melo Commission's report was to be expected.

"It's obvious that she still wants to keep up the pretense that she is giving full importance to the issue of extrajudicial killings by asking the European Union's assistance in further investigating the matter."

Beltran reminded Arroyo that she had ignored the report of the international human rights institution Amnesty International on the killings.

"If the EU lays down the exact same findings and conclusions, that the extrajudicial killings of human rights advocates and political activists are a state policy, will Macapagal-Arroyo respect the EU's findings?" he asked.

On the President's silence on the issue of command responsibility and the Melo Commission's conclusion that retired major general Jovito Palparan be held to account for the killings, Beltran said:

"By doing this, she once more absolves Palparan and puts him under the cloak of her protection. By protecting Palparan, she also saves herself because both of them are the masterminds of the bloody campaign against political activists and human rights workers," he said.

"She has no genuine intention to give justice to the victims of extrajudicial killings and to go after the perpetrators. Over 800 have been killed since her term began, and none of the killers have been brought to justice."

But pro-administration lawmakers supported Arroyo's order for a wider probe on extra-judicial killings which, they said, must be given the needed cooperation by the victims' families and militant organizations.

A wider probe on the killings would hopefully enlist the cooperation of the victims' families and witnesses, said Representative Salacnib Baterina of Ilocos Sur and Eduardo Veloso of Leyte in a joint statement.

They noted that the militants had asked for an independent body to inquire into the killings but questioned the Melo Commission's credibility when the President heeded their call.

Baterina said the new inquiries would encourage militants to cooperate in the investigations.

"Sadly, they were given the chance to present their case but they snubbed the summons. The wider probe shows the President's resolve to bring to justice all those behind the killings," said Baterina.

Veloso said the wider probe was ordered by the President for the sake of fairness and justice. "The President merely wants a 'second opinion' and pinpointing of exact responsibility for all cases of political killings."


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