US raps Arroyo on political killings

Execs want US, int’l aid tied to RP rights record

Inquirer
Last updated 02:32am (Mla time) 03/16/2007

WASHINGTON -- The Bush administration on Wednesday said Philippine 
President
Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo had not done enough to deal with security 
forces under
her command who were allegedly involved in extrajudicial killings.

Eric John, US deputy assistant secretary of state for East Asia, 
praised Ms
Arroyo for making efforts in recent months to stop the killings.

But he also told the Senate foreign relations subcommittee on Asia that 
Ms
Arroyo was ultimately responsible for the actions of the security 
forces and
for the rise in attacks on people speaking out against her 
administration.

Philippine rights groups estimate that more than 830 activists have 
been
killed since 2001, when Ms Arroyo became president. The Philippine 
Daily
Inquirer’s count is 295.

“Until these numbers come drastically down, though, I don’t think you 
can
determine that it’s enough,” John said when asked if Ms Arroyo’s 
actions had
been sufficient.

“As the ultimate authority in the chain of command, she has to take the 
steps
to solve any involvement by members of the security forces.”

Democratic Sen. Barbara Boxer asked John whether the United States 
should link
its infusions of military aid to improvement in the country’s human 
rights
record. “It’s really important that we do not have blood on our hands 
in this
country,” she said.

“Our approach is that tying legislation to assistance money can be
counterproductive,” John replied.

A former senior US diplomat at the hearing questioned Ms Arroyo’s 
capability
to take steps to end the extrajudicial killings, saying she has become
“politically weak” since her controversial election in 2004 and banked 
on
military support.

“While we all hope the killings will stop immediately, I am not 
optimistic in
the short run,” said Eugene Martin, a former deputy head of the US 
Embassy in
Manila, and now with the US Institute of Peace, an independent group
established and funded by the US Congress.

Martin said that US counterterrorism cooperation and training 
opportunities
the Philippine military provided American forces “may limit pressure on 
the
Arroyo administration” to take action on the killings.

He said donor nations and international financial institutions, which 
already
had strong anticorruption requirements for economic assistance, should 
link
aid to independent investigations of the killings to enhance the 
resolution of
the cases.

No contradiction

Jonathan Farrar, the principal US assistant secretary of state for 
human
rights, said “there is no tension and no contradiction” between 
improving the
protection of human rights in the Philippines and assisting Manila to 
combat
terrorist threats.

According to state department figures, US aid to help the Philippines 
fight
insurgencies included $70 million in Foreign Military Financing from 
2004-06
and $2.7 million in International Military Education and Training in 
2004. The
Philippines also received $148 million worth of equipment under the 
Excess
Defense Articles program.

‘Unexplained killings’

In Manila, Press Secretary Ignacio Bunye said the Arroyo administration 
was
doing its best to stop the killings but needed the cooperation of the 
public
in its effort.

“Let me state that the Philippine government really condemns these 
unexplained
killings and it is prepared to do whatever is necessary so that we 
finally put
a stop to all of these atrocities,” Bunye said.

He said the government had made progress and had taken concrete steps 
to
address the killings, citing the creation of special courts to handle 
the
cases, the assignment of additional investigators and the strengthening 
of its
witness protection program.

‘Guilt complex?’

On Wednesday night, a security team led by Philippine National Police 
Deputy
Director General Avelino Razon left for Washington in case the US panel 
agreed
to the Philippine Embassy’s request that it be allowed to provide 
official
representatives to its hearing.

Reelectionist Sen. Joker Arroyo of the administration’s Team Unity, who 
had
criticized the hearings as interference in Philippine affairs, said the 
Razon
mission was a “junket.”

“Do they have a guilt complex?” said Arroyo. “If Malacañang thinks its
position is correct, then why should they explain?”

The Arroyo administration has denied allegations by a UN human rights 
expert
and its own fact-finding commission that the military was behind most 
of the
killings of activists since 2001. Her office insists the government is
determined to uphold the rule of law.

Military officials have accused activists of links to communist rebels, 
who
have been waging a 38-year-old rural-based insurgency.

Washington has underlined its concerns to the Arroyo administration 
over the
killings and “strongly urged Philippine officials to take additional 
steps,”
such as those recommended by Manila’s own commission of inquiry on the
violence, John said.

‘Not a single conviction’

The commission, headed by retired Supreme Court Justice Jose Melo, 
found
circumstantial evidence to link some sectors of the military to the 
deaths.

“It is disturbing to note that even though hundreds have been killed so 
far,
to date there has not been a single conviction,” T. Kumar, rights group
Amnesty International’s Asia-Pacific advocacy director, told the 
hearing.

He said that Maj. Gen. Jovito Palparan, who was implicated in the 
killings in
the Melo report, was lauded by Ms Arroyo as “an asset to the
counterinsurgency” following his retirement last September and had been
encouraged to run for a seat in the Philippine Congress.

Churches slam abuses

Also Thursday, the National Council of Churches in the Philippines in a 
news
conference issued the 90-page “Let the Stones Cry Out: An Ecumenical 
Report on
Human Rights in the Philippines and a Call to Action.”

The report indicts the Arroyo administration for alleged crimes against
humanity for the murders of hundreds of leftist activists, journalists 
and
church workers. It was released to coincide with the start of the US 
hearings
on extrajudicial killings in the Philippines.

The NCCP, a network of protestant churches, joined a high-powered 
delegation
of human rights and religious activists to the Washington hearings.

RP delegation

The delegation included Ms Sharon Rose Joy Ruiz-Duremdes, NCCP general
secretary; Bishop Eliezer M. Pascua, general secretary of the United 
Church of
Christ in the Philippines; Bishop Solito Toquero, resident bishop of 
the
United Methodist Church-Manila; Bishop Deogracias Iñiguez of Kalookan; 
Fr.
Jose P. Dizon, executive director of the Workers Assistance Center 
Inc.; Marie
Hilao-Enriquez, secretary general of Karapatan; Edre Olalia of the 
Counsels
for the Defense of Liberties; Athea Peñalosa, information and publicity
coordinator of the Children’s Rehabilitation Center; Amirah Ali 
Lidasan,
secretary general and co-founder of the Moro-Christian People’s 
Alliance. With
reports from Juliet Labog-Javellana, Cynthia D. Balana, TJ Burgonio, 
Christian
V. Esguerra, Associated Press, Agence France-Presse, Reuters