Solons say GMA unable to stop killlings

Lawmakers yesterday slammed President Arroyo for putting up a P25-million bounty that she said was needed to end the spate of political killings in the country, saying that dangling such “bribe” only manifested her apparent inability to govern and to resolve issues involving political violence.

“It’s a bribe,” Senate Minority Leader Aquilino Pimentel said of the bounty. “It’s an indication that (Mrs.) Gloria (Arroyo) can not enforce the laws that’s why she has to resort to bribing other people.”

Even Sen. Francis Escudero, chairman of the Senate committee on justice and human rights, cast doubt on the ability of the government to run after criminals and extremists. “Have we lost the support of the people that we need to buy information from them? Have our police and military become so inept?” he asked.

While in Cairo, Mrs. Arroyo issued an order establishing the P25-million bounty fund to “erase the legacy of political violence that has haunted our nation for generations.” She also asked lawmakers to help raise the amount by contributing P250,000 each from their pork barrel.

The bounty, according to Secretary Eduardo Ermita, would also cover cases of media killings.

As this developed, the Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) approved the release P18 million cash reward for individuals with information that would lead to the arrest of 20 personalities, including Communist Party of the Philippines founder Jose Ma. Sison, for their alleged involvement in the killing of mediamen.

Philippine National Police (PNP) spokesman Chief Supt. Nicanor Bartolome disclosed that the P18 million cash reward from the DILG was separate from President Arroyo’s bounty system.

At a news conference in Camp Crame, Bartolome said the P18 million reward system was meant to encourage people to help in the arrest of those implicated in the killing of media personalities .

According to Bartolome, the DILG also offered a P10-million reward is offered to individuals who will provide information that will lead to the arrest of Sison and another P5 million for the arrest of New People’s Army henchman Gregorio “Ka Roger” Rosal. Both Sison and Rosal were implicated in the killing of media personality Nelson Nadura, a media man from Masbate .

Congressmen belonging to militant party-list groups slammed Mrs. Arroyo for putting up the reward system that they claimed was part of political propaganda intended to cover up the political killings.

Mrs. Arroyo’s “ much ballyhooed P25-million reward for informants for political killings is sheer propaganda and the ultimate in hypocrisy considering that until now, she has totally ignored the recommendations of UN Special Rapporteur Alston and the Melo Commission, which includes the prosecution of the general-turned-congressman (Jovito) Palparan,” Casiño said.

Alston is Prof. Philipp Alston, special rapporteur of the United Nations Human Rights Council that investigated into reported spate of extra-judicial, summary or arbitrary executions in the Philippines. The Melo Commission was the five-man commission then headed by retired Supreme Court associate justice Jose Melo (now chairman of the Commission on Elections) that looked into agrarian-related killings and recommended the investigation of retired Army Maj. Gen. Jovito Palparan, also known as “The Butcher” for his alleged involvement in those killings.

Casino said that instead of dandling bounties, Mrs. Arroyo could just have ordered the Armed Forces of the Philippines to stop the killings. “All she has to do is issue a categorical order for the AFP to stop killing activists and suspected NPA or MILF supporters,” he said.

Anakpawis Rep. Rafael Mariano echoed Casiño’s sentiments. “Ms Arroyo’s order smacks of cover-up of her regime’s culpability on the extra-judicial killings of political activists and journalists” he said as he noted that “this government continues to be in a state of denial.”

But despite the scathing criticism that opposition lawmakers hurled against Mrs. Arroyo, her allies in Congress were only too willing to fork out part of their pork barrel funds as their share of the Mrs. Arroyo’s reward system.

Cebu City Rep. Antonio Cuenco, chairman of the House committee on foreign affairs, said he would shell out an amount of P250,000 to help put a stop to political killings. “The problem (of political killings) has put the Philippines in a bad light, portraying our country as a barbaric nation with no respect for human life. It is time we, as people’s representatives, contribute again in another way to redeem our country’s tarnished integrity,” he said.

House Deputy Speaker for Mindanao Simeon Datumanong explained the President’s objective was noble and deserved the lawmakers’ support. “Political violence has been a problem of the country since time immemorial. This has got to stop now.”

He said that “if all the 238 members of Congress will give their share, we can raise P59,500,000, which is more than the P25-million target of the President. The fund will be more than enough to entice informants to talk and help solve the killings.”

Cavite Rep. Elpidio Barzaga Jr. also expressed support to the reward system. “I think it will help. That (giving rewards) has been practiced, the people will come out and we have to give them incentives,” he explained.

Even Palparan of Bantay party-list group, who admitted no knowledge of how the pork barrel system worked, said he would be only too glad to contribute part of his pork barrel to President Arroyo’s reward system but added that the campaign should be concentrated on areas where extra-judicial killings are rampant.

“It is okay with me if such funds, coming out of the national coffers, could help,” said Palparan, known as The Butcher for having been accused of executing mass activists in areas where he was deployed during his military tour of duty.

But Pimentel said that by asking the congressmen to help put up funds for the reward system, President Arroyo was virtually “shifting the burden of her duty and so if this would not succeed, she can blame it on others, the congressmen. What’s the PNP (Philippine National Police) and AFP (Armed Forces of the Philippines) doing? It’s their job,” he said. “It’s an admission of inutility and then of course inability to govern. Maybe she really can not do her job.”

Escudero remarked that the President need not ask the congressmen to contribute to the bounty, she having control of the release of the lawmakers’ Priority Development Assistance Fund, or PDAF, also known as pork barrel.

“If pork barrel were literally a barrel, it will only have the presidential seal on it, dispelling any doubt as to ownership of the fund,” he added.

Escudero said good intelligence work, not the P25-million bounty, could help stop political killings. “Assassinations are not street crimes like cell phone snatching. It takes a lot of sleuthing to unmask gun-for-hires. This is a job best done by our intelligence guys,” he said.

Pimentel said the Mrs. Arroyo, as president and commander in chief of the AFP, could easily issue orders to concerned agencies in address the rising incidence of political killings. “She need not raise money for the fund. She need not ask the congressmen. The reason why she’s called the Chief Executive is because the buck stops at her desk. She can not pass it on,” he said.

Pimentel noted the Executive’s failure to provide additional funds to some concerned agencies such as the Department of Justice (DoJ) and the Commission on Human Rights (CHR).

“This is what we call double speak. You can see immediately that this is just another gimmick in order to show that she’s trying her best to curb extra-judicial killings, forced disappearances.

“But the main message is by offering the P25 million from her and asking the congressmen to raise more money, that means that she is admitting her incapacity to enforce the laws of this country, through the regular means, meaning through the PNP and AFP. She has to bribe other people,” said Pimentel.

Escudero could only need in agreement even as he expressed against hope that such action by the President was “not another PR (public relations) job to mollify critics, especially the special human rights rapporteur of the United Nations. The political killings will not end until we address the root causes of the longest-running communist insurgency in the world.”

In Malacañang, Ermita said that cases involving media killing were also covered under the P25-million bounty that Mrs. Arroyo put up.

He said that the fund program, primarily intended to put a stop to political killings, would be made available to the agencies of the Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG), the National Bureau of Investigation, the PNP, and the different agencies providing back-up support.

Ermita also mentioned that last year the president provided also some P25 million in funding support to the Commission On Human Rights (CHR). “The CHR is a separate body and the President under her power made the fund to show that she is willing to pork out that fund for assisting a separate agency,” he said.

“It is enough to say that with all the sincerity the President has thought of beefing up their resources,” Ermita said. –Angie M. Rosales and Gerry Baldo with reports from Charlie Manalo, Riza Recio and Gina Peralta-Elorde, Daily Tribune