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PHILIPPINES: UN Lifeline Against Extra-Judicial Killings

Marwaan Macan-Markar

BANGKOK, Feb 21 2007 (IPS) - By condemning the Philippines’ military for having a hand in a brutal campaign to eliminate politicians and activists with left-leaning views, a United Nations envoy may have thrown a lifeline to many whose lives may be in danger.

The armed forces of the Philippines (AFP) ”remains in a state of almost total denial’’ about the political killings in the South-east Asian nation despite many of the murders having been ‘’convincingly attributed to them,’’ Philip Alston, U.N. special rapporteur on extrajudicial killings, said in a statement released Wednesday in Manila.

He also charged the country’s national police force of falling short in its investigation into the murders, often failing to use proper ‘’forensic’’ measures. Alston was particular critical of the ease with which a recently retired army officer, Maj. Gen. Jovito Palparan, who has been called ‘The Butcher,’ by some, and ‘The Executioner,’ by others, has eluded charges that linked him to a spate of extrajudicial killings in areas where he used to operate, such as Central Luzon, north of the archipelago.

”When the Chief of the AFP contents himself with telephoning Maj. Gen. Palparan three times in order to satisfy himself that the persistent and extensive allegations against the general were entirely unfounded, rather than launching a thorough internal investigation, it is clear that there is still a very long way to go,’’ Alston was quoted as having said in a report on Global Media Arts Network, a Manila-based national television station.

Palparan’s views about the country’s leftists were no secret. ‘’We’ve got to hate the movement,’’ he was once reported to have told the Philippines media last year. Prior to that he was quoted as having justified his drive against legitimate leftist activists with lines like, ‘’they’re legal but they are doing illegal activities’’.

The Australian-born Alston’s comments came at the end of a 10-day investigation into the wave of political murders – which local human rights groups say have exceeded 830 deaths – since President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo began her term in office in 2001. The victims have included over 360 left-wing activists in addition to journalists, lawyers, judges, priests, trade unionists, grassroots activists and human rights advocates.

‘’His strong position has helped clarify the wrong statements and lies spread by the Arroyo government,’’ Renato Reyes, secretary-general of Bayan, the largest left-wing alliance in the Philippines, told IPS from Manila. ‘’This should add pressure on the government to do something, particularly to respond to the role of the army in perpetuating and tolerating the killings.’’

The room for a government denial has been reduced dramatically and could diminish further when Alston releases his final report in three months, say other critics of the Arroyo administration. ‘’Alston’s comments were objective and fair,’’ Teddy Casinno, a congressman belonging to the leftist Bayan Muna party in the legislature, said in an IPS interview. ‘’The government cannot deny the charges about extrajudicial killings. It has to acknowledge the findings.’’

The lifeline thrown by the U.N. envoy to leftist activists in the Philippines is being warmly received. Alston said that Manila’s counter-insurgency campaigns to win public support in areas where leftist sympathy is strong had seen drives that attempted to ‘’vilify left-leaning organisations and to intimidate leaders of such organisations,’’ according to the AFP news agency. ‘’In some instances, such intimidation escalates into extrajudicial executions.’’

Alston’s comments add to other critical reports that go against an argument trotted out by the authorities to explain the high number of political murders. The Philippines military, for instance, has tried to pin the blame on the in-fighting in the New People’s Army (NPA), the military wing of the outlawed Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP).

The envoy’s findings are also expected to add pressure on Manila to make public the findings of a government-appointed commission, led by Jose Melo, a retired Supreme Court judge, to inquire into the political killings. The commission was set up in the wake of criticism last year by international human rights watchdogs like Amnesty International, which accused sections of the Philippines army for links with the bloody campaign.

The current campaign against the leftists is not unique, however. In the late 1980s, the Philippines was the scene of an officially sanctioned drive to go after leftists and sympathisers of the CPP. During that campaign, masked men riding motorcycles turned assassins and picked off over 580 victims, according to a human rights group.

And decades before that, in the 1940s and 1950s, leftist legislators and activists were targeted in violent campaigns backed by the state.

Consequently, there are some parallels being drawn between the present and the past in Manila’s attempt to silence those it disagrees with. ‘’Killing has become part of the government’s attempt to quell dissent,’’ Ruth Cervantes, spokeswoman for Karapatan, a local human rights group, told IPS from Manila. ‘’They are against left-wing activists participating in the political arena.’’