PRESS RELEASE
February 28, 2007

Church group calls for probe on US’ hand on issue of political 
killings; dares US government: Stop US support for Philippine military 

“If the US government really wants to help solve political killings 
under Arroyo, it should stop advising, funding and giving all forms of 
support to the Philippine military whose current operations mainly serve to 
preserve Arroyo in power and eliminate administration critics.”

This was the challenge of the Promotion of Church People’s Response 
(PCPR) in response to US embassy officials’ posturing on the issue of 
extra-judicial killings. 

“We believe that the US’ hand in the killings must also be investigated 
by the international human rights bodies. In the first place, Oplan Bantay 
Laya II and all previous counter-insurgency operations implemented by the 
Philippine military have been heavily funded and supported by the US government as 
it wants to rid the Philippines of perceived threats to US interests. We 
see the US’ hand in extra-judicial killings directly above the Malacañang-AFP
operations that are guided by US agenda to rid the country of militant 
groups that are critical of US economic, political and military intervention. 
And we know that as long as the Philippine military operations are designed to
preserve Arroyo in power, the special commissions, courts and other
Malacañang-created bodies will all be part of Arroyo’s cosmetics to 
repeatedly deny state accountability on extra-judicial killings, enforced 
disappearances and other attacks on human rights,” Fr. Jerry Sabado, OCarm, PCPR 
Spokesperson pointed out.   

“We denounce the long-running US funding and control over the 
Philippine military through the Joint US-RP Miltary Advisory Group (JUSMAG), US-RP 
Mutual Defense Treaty and the Visiting Forces Agreement (VFA). We welcome the 
growing international call for the Arroyo government to immediately stop the 
killings. While we thank the American people who have joined the victims’ cry for
justice, we condemn the US policy-makers who inspire military  atrocities under
the Arroyo government’s all-out war. Many of the fallen activists were involved in protests against US-directed policies of the Arroyo  government,” PCPR concluded.    

Reference: Fr. Jerry Sabado, OCarm, PCPR Spokesperson
                  Contact: 4107623 
-- 
Promotion of Church People's Response (PCPR)
pcpr_nat@tri-isys.com