Church group scores gov’t for summary killings 
By TJ Burgonio
Inquirer
Last updated 08:44pm (Mla time) 03/15/2007

MANILA, Philippines -- The National Council of Churches in the 
Philippines
(NCCP) is taking the government to task for the extra-judicial killings 
of
leftwing activists, journalists and church workers which it claimed 
were part
of "state security policy.”

In a lengthy report on the country's human rights situation, the NCCP 
it said
the government could "not evade accountability” for the string of 
killings
since 2001 that was an offshoot of its war on insurgency and terrorism, 
and
encouraged by a "culture of impunity.”

The NCCP said that the government not only failed to stop "crimes 
against
humanity” and live up to its commitment as a member of the United 
Nations
Human Rights Council (UNHRC), but it also has been slow in 
investigating the
killings, which have been widely blamed on security forces.

When it finally created a police task force and an commission to look 
into the
killings, it did so in view of pressure, and then failed to prosecute 
the
suspects, a situation that would necessitate bringing the issue to the
attention of the UNHRC, the NCCP said.

"Under these appalling circumstances, the government of President 
Arroyo
cannot evade accountability for the series of extra-judicial killings, 
forced
disappearances and other cases of violations of human rights taking 
place,” it
added.

It went on to point out that President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, as
Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces, oversees the departments of 
national
defense, local government, and justice, and the National Security 
Council, and
is responsible for complying with UN human rights instruments.

The NCCP is a network of Protestant churches. Its 90-page, six-part 
report,
“Let the Stones Cry Out: An Ecumenical Report on Human Rights in the
Philippines and a Call to Action,” is based on studies, papers, 
researches,
analyses, and news reports on political killings.

Through this report, the council would try to confront the “’human 
rights
crisis” objectively "by assembling together leads, evidence, patterns 
of
military movements, testimonies, documents and reports of fact-finding
missions,” it said.

From January 2001 to the present, some 833 "extra-judicial killings” 
have been
recorded by the human rights group Karapatan, mostly members of the 
Bayan Muna
party-list, the NCCP said.

The NCCP noted that the killings were being committed in the context of
counter-insurgency and counter-terrorism programs and that statements 
of
concern, fact-finding mission reports and countless investigations had
implicated' government's security forces.

"This being so, the unsolved cases of extra-judicial executions, 
enforced
disappearances, torture and other violations of human rights can only 
be the
end-results of a state security policy that uses unlawful acts of
unconventional warfare and other forms of violence against persons and
organizations that are contrary to the conscience of humankind and
international human rights,” it said.

The NCCP said that when the Melo Commission concluded that there was no
official government policy on liquidations, it seemed to have 
overlooked leads
such as officials' statements labeling groups in the military "hit 
list” as
"front organizations” of the communist movement.

The NCCP said there was a connection between the killings, 
disappearances and
other rights violations, and the government's anti-insurgency program, 
Oplan
Bantay Laya (OBL), based on documents, narrative accounts, and findings 
of
fact-finding missions.