UN’s Alston blasts GMA’s failure to end political killings

United Nations Special Rapporteur to the Philippines Professor Philip Alston has blasted President Arroyo’s government for failing to put an end to extra-judicial killings.

While he said that these political murders have decreased in recent years, he pointed out that these extra-judicial killings nevertheless continue due to lack of substantial measures to address the problem.

He specifically pointed to the death squad killings in Davao which he said are far from being reduced and have in fact skyrocketed.

“In the face of all the evidence, the government’s

denial of the existence of such death squads continues to undermine its credibility and inhibit efforts to address the problem,” Alston said.

In his follow-up report to the 11th session of the Human Rights Council in Geneva , Switzerland this week, the UN Rapporteur stressed that “reforms directed at institutionalizing the reduction of killings of leftist activists and others, and in ensuring command responsibility for abuses have not been implemented.”

“The (Philippine) government has failed to make sufficient substantive progress and, in some cases, has made no progress at all,” Alston said, adding that “although the number of extra-judicial executions of members of civil society organizations has greatly diminished, too many cases continue to be reported and far too little accountability has been achieved for the perpetrators.”

Although the government “deserves credit” for having enacted some reforms in partial fulfillment of his recommendations during a fact-finding mission to the country in 2007, Alston said “presidential orders have lacked substance, the Commission for Human Rights (CHR) has only recently begun to play a more substantial role under a new leadership, and crucial reforms of relevant government agencies have yet to take place.”

He also noticed that not a single member of the military, whom he earlier blamed for many killings and forced disappearances, has been prosecuted.

According to Alston, the number of killings of leftist activists decreased dramatically shortly after his visit two years ago.

The highest documented numbers of executions of leftist activists were 94 in 2007 and 64 in 2008, compared with 220 in 2006, he said.

But while current levels are significantly lower than before, Alston said “they still remain a cause for great alarm, and reflect the failure to make the recommended structural reforms.”

“In the absence of such steps, the progress that has been made remains fragile and easily reversed,” he said, adding that “neither the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) nor the Philippine National Police (PNP) have significantly stepped up their investigations of the killings of leftist activists.”

“Impunity for past killings, combined with a green light for future killings, will prevail unless there is a sharp change in course in efforts to implement the Special Rapporteur’s recommendations,” Alston said.

He expressed concern that the AFP has not changed its counterinsurgency techniques, saying there is a likelihood that killing of leftist activists will continue.

Alston also called for “greater transparency” in relation to the “orders of battle,” other lists and databases maintained by the military establishment in relation to the targeting of leftist groups or so-called “enemies of the state.”

Forced disappearances and illegal detentions, meanwhile, “remain all too common, as does the bringing of trumped up charges against Filipino activists and human rights abuse victims,” Alston said.

He also said that witness protection remains grossly inadequate. –Michaela P. del Callar with Riza Recio, Daily Tribune