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The Lies of GRP Officials on Extrajudicial Killings:Study Submitted to the GRP-NDFP Joint Monitoring Committee (JMC)by NDFP MC-JS of Twenty-Three (23) Complaints for Extrajudicial Killings that President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, Task Force Usig and General Hermogenes Esperon Are Blaming on the NDFP

Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, at the Vin D' Honneur, Wednesday, January 31, 2007, Malacañang:

“Investigations suggest links to both right and left -- to communists, communist rebels as well as possibly elements of our own military. The investigations of the national police's Task Force "Usig" have unearthed some interesting facts such as 23 cases of killings perpetrated by the NPA against their own men…. "

The Power Point Presentation (below) details the lies in the above claim about the 23 cases. The data point to the military as the perpetrators, not the NPA.

Click here to go to the Power Point Presentation webpage with explanation (in MP3) by Atty. Olalia and Ms. Palo

BONUS TRACKS:

► UN Special Rapporteur Philip Alston meets with relatives of victims and Karapatan human rights workers

► The Alston Report, the Melo Report and various reactions and news features

Photo release from KARAPATAN, taken during Mr. Philip Alston's meeting with victims on Valentine's Day.

UN's Philip Alston speaks with Karapatan's Marie Hilao-Enriquez as they pass a photo gallery of human rights victims

Karapatan's Sr. Cecilia Ruiz assists human rights victims as they recount their stories to UN's Philip Alston
 

► Batasan 5 meets Alston
► CHR on killings
► CPA-On_Alston_report.doc
► inq7 editorial-harsh words

Excerpts from Alston's press statement

"The AFP remains in a state of almost total denial (as its official

response to the Melo Report amply demonstrates) of its need to respond

effectively and authentically to the significant number of killings

which have been convincingly attributed to them."

"The evidence offered by the military in support of this theory*  is
especially unconvincing. Human rights organizations have documented very few such cases. The AFP relies instead on figures and trends relating to the purges of the late 1980s, and on an alleged CPP/NPA document captured in May 2006 describing Operation Bushfire. In the absence of much stronger supporting evidence this particular document bears all the hallmarks of a fabrication and cannot be taken as evidence of anything other than disinformation."

*The theory that the 'correct, accurate, and truthful' reason for
the recent rise in killings lies in purges committed by the CPP/NPA.

► inq7-admit killings are happening

► inq7-alston leaves rp

► inq7-defense military silent on alston report
► inq7-doj says un rap brainwashed.txt

► inq7-enrile blast un probe.txt

► inq7-un blames military for slays
► inq7-un raporter says hr sit tragic.txt
► kabataan party slams doj chief on alston comment
► Karapatan-victimsmeetAlston.doc
► Mediakillingssubvertrpdemocracy
► Mrsbeltranasksalstonrekabelcase
► Nordis Weekly-alston hears north luzon victims
► Times - afp in denial
► Times-enrile tells un.txt
► Times-military insists on purge story
► Times-rp democratic gains under siege
► Tribune - alson blames military

"Much importance was attached to two persons who had been listed as killed, but who were presented to me alive. Two errors, in circumstances which might partly explain the mistakes, do very little to discredit the vast number of remaining allegations."

Jose Maria Sison on the preliminary statement

of the UN Rapporteur, Philip Alston

The report of the Melo commission repetitiously and obsequiously praises and exculpates Gloria M. Arroyo and insults the revolutionary movement. But it establishes that there is a grave problem of extrajudicial killings perpetrated by what it estimates as “a small group of military rogues”. It considers as credible and convincing the information drawn from sources other than the families of the victims and the human rights organization Karapatan that the military is responsible for the extrajudicial killings.

The Melo report takes to task AFP chief of staff General Esperon for failing to prevent, investigate and punish those responsible for extrajudicial killings in accordance with the principle of command responsibility and the rule of law. The commission holds General Palparan responsible for the extrajudicial killings and abductions of unarmed activists within his previous areas of command and for making statements condoning and encouraging these atrocities.

The Melo report exposes the self-contradictions in the false claim and intrigue of the military that the extrajudicial killings are the result of an “internal purge” within the ranks of the revolutionary forces. It finds credible and convincing the testimonies of the surviving victims and the families of the victims. Although the Melo commission was boycotted by them, it was able to rely on the investigations and documentation of the Human Rights Commission and other sources.

...The Melo commission is even more limited by the fact that it is a creature of Gloria M. Arroyo, lacks independence and ample resources of its own and does not enjoy the full confidence of the families of the victims and the human rights organizations. After trying to mothball the Melo report because of its criticism of the military, the Arroyo regime has been compelled to release it only because of the demands of UN agencies, the European Commission, human right organizations, the general public and others.

► D\ownload: JMS statement on the Alston and Melo reports

Alston asks the top officials of the Philippine reactionary government to acknowledge the reality of the extrajudicial killings and to issue a statement from the very top, from the President, from the Secretary of Defense, and certainly from the AFP chief of staff saying that extrajudicial killings will not be tolerated. He avers that the extrajudicial killings are convincingly attributed to the military by the victims and their families.

Alston falls short of spelling out the culpability of de facto president Gloria M. Arroyo as AFP commander-in-chief and her cabinet oversight committee on internal security for adopting and carrying out the policy of state terrorism and the operational plan Bantay Laya I and II, in line with the Bush global war of terror.

However, Alston states that the all-out war policy has driven a part of the military to commit extrajudicial killings. He describes as unconvincing the false claim and intrigue of AFP chief of staff General Hermogenes Esperon, Jr. that the victims of extrajudicial killings are communists but are “purged’ by the communists on suspicion of being spies or malversing party funds.

The Alston mission is restrained by considerations of the Philippines being a member-state of the United Nations and having representatives in the human rights treaty bodies of the UN....

The families of the victims of extrajudicial killings and other human rights violations and the broad masses of the people are pleased with the positive points in the Alston press statement and the Melo commission. They have yearned for justice for so long that they welcome any glimmer of hope. At the same time, they are concerned that the Arroyo regime will continue to push the military, police and paramilitary forces to commit more human rights violations in line with Oplan Bantay Laya, especially after she signs the Anti-Terror Act.

Gloria M. Arroyo has reacted to the Alston statement and Melo report by pretending to accept them gracefully but insisting that 99.9 per cent of her armed minions are “good”. She lets her executive secretary Ermita, justice secretary Raul Gonzales and General Esperon badmouth Alston. Without any sense of honor and shame, Esperon repeats his lies against me in a futile attempt to deflect attention from his exposure as a liar by the Alston statement and even by the Melo report.

Jose Maria Sison on Esperon's use of an old doctored film clip

Esperon also makes the false claim that I identified certain legal mass organizations.like Bayan, Kilusang Mayo Uno, Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas, Gabriela and League of Filipino students not as legal “national democratic forces” but as “front organizations” of the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDF). He uses an old doctored film clip of me delivering a lecture in Brussels, Belgium in 1987. The military psywar experts conflated a passage of my speech enumerating the legal democratic organizations and another passage mentioning the NDF.
 

Only an imbecile would dare to misrepresent me as being ignorant of the underground organizations of the NDF and confusing them with legal democratic forces in the Bayan multisectoral alliance. What is the point of Esperon in making all the foregoing false claims against me? To “prove” that I have identified legal organizations as belonging to the NDF and to “justify” the military in threatening and murdering legal activists?

► ka bel on alston report
► ka bel--esperongonzalezshouldberemovedform office
► ka bel-gma should rsign over killings
► ka bel-gma should stop protecting the military

► AFPresse-Arroyo in a bind over military link to killings

► afpresse-arroyo in a bind over killings
► cbn-cbcp head welcomes UN report
► Christian Science Monitor-political killings traced to military
► gmanewstv-jms on video of afp
► gmanewtv-palparan says reds may have infiltrated melo
► inq7-gma maybe liable - melo report
► inq7-govt has no plans to end killings
► inq7-joma video doctored
► tribune-us bishop wants congress not to support gma
► Bayan Muna rejects Kenney's "crocodile tears"; Washington asked to stop military aid to Manila

► US offer of help in investigation of killings duplicitous—CPP

► Ka Bel on US offer of help in solving killings

► ai - all parties must act on killings ahead of elections
► anakbayan on joma video
► bayan muina-satur says gma knew of slays since 2002
► bayan muna -gma must order to stop the killings now
► bayan muna-on illegalization of partylists
► bayan-usa - on alston report
► cpp agrees in essencce with un report
► ctuhr on alston report
► gabriela on afp redbaiting
► migrante europe-gma and her gestapo must now face the ippt
► ndfp-arroyo has no intention of ending killings
► ndfp-miondanao-record of gma surpassing record of marcos

► bulatlat-it was a harrowing process
► bulatlat-melo report ignored key policy issues
► bulatlat-no evidence vs ndfp
► bulatlat-two small hopes
► bulatlat-un rep visit wont stop killings

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