Defense, military silent on Alston report

MANILA, Philippines — The defense and military establishments on Wednesday chose silence vis-à-vis the initial findings of United Nations Special Rapporteur Philip Alston, but Justice Secretary Raul Gonzalez came out with guns blazing.

Gonzalez said Alston was closing his eyes to the purported atrocities committed by the Left, and expressed the belief that the latter had been brainwashed by leftist groups.

“Mr. Alston is in denial; he’s in denial of the atrocities of the other side,” the justice secretary told reporters when asked for comment.

“When you tell him, ‘This is a taped message from (Jose Maria) Joma Sison,’ he will tell you that was long ago,” Gonzalez said in reference to the founding chair of the Communist Party of the Philippines and now consultant of its political arm, the National Democratic Front.

In Malacañang, President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo ordered her spokesperson, Press Secretary Ignacio Bunye, to make public the report of the Melo Commission.

The President also announced that she had authorized the release of P25 million to the Commission on Human Rights, “so that it can do more to investigate human rights violations and hold training programs for government actors such as the military.”

Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita said the Office of the Press Secretary would distribute copies of the Melo Report to members of the Malacañang Press Corps on Thursday morning.

Ermita reminded reporters at his regular news briefing that the report was “preliminary” because the commission had tried but failed to hear the testimonies of the families of victims of extrajudicial killings.

“But because of the clamor of everyone to have access to it,” Ermita said, the report would be “made available” along with letters of reaction of the Armed Forces chief of staff, Gen. Hermogenes Esperon, and retired Maj. Gen. Jovito Palparan.

Ermita also said that on Bunye’s recommendation, the Palace may direct retired Supreme Court Justice Jose Melo and the members of the Melo Commission to face the media to expound on their report.

‘Sonamagun’

Gonzalez said he believed that Alston had a preconceived notion of the Philippine situation even before arriving here:

“Once somebody from that body (the UN Human Rights Council) comes here, basically he has a preconditioned mind. Whom did he first talk to? He talked to the leftists. He allowed himself to be brainwashed first by the leftists. I think among the last he talked with were the leftists.”

Gonzalez also bridled at Alston’s recommendation that the government’s Witness Protection Program be strengthened.

“There are many witnesses who have surfaced, so you can tell that sonamagun after this that he does not know what he’s talking about,” the justice secretary said, adding:

“He is critical of us, but he’s just a rapporteur. He’s just a hired man from the UN in certain specific projects. There are many countries he cannot even enter. Pasalamat nga siya nakapasok siya dito (He should be thankful he was even allowed to come here).”

Gonzalez likewise said he found the Philippines too accommodating to people like Alston.

“It’s our problem really because we’re too kind. We let everybody in and visit our kitchen and toilets,” he said.

An official at the Department of National Defense said it would leave it to Malacañang for now to issue a statement or reaction to Alston’s initial findings.

The official, who asked not to be named for lack of authority to speak on the matter, said Esperon might call a news conference Thursday.

Asked for a reaction to Alston’s statement that the military was in a state of “almost total denial” of the killings, Armed Forces spokesperson Lt. Col. Bartolome Bacarro said it was “beyond the AFP to comment right now.”

But he also said that the AFP was standing firm on the evidence it had earlier presented to Alston and the UN team on the supposed purging being done by the CPP and its armed wing, the New People’s Army.

“We have shown them documents that the NPA had been purging and, as a matter of fact, [the CPP/NPA] had admitted [to it]. And that was why some leaders apologized to the people killed … That, by itself, is proof that they were into this purging,” Bacarro told reporters.

He also pointed out that Esperon had committed the military’s cooperation in the separate inquiries of the UN team and the European Union.

Forensic evidence

The Philippine National Police was quick to defend the work of Task Force Usig, which it had formed to look into the extrajudicial killings.

PNP spokesperson Chief Superintendent Samuel Pagdilao said the task force had used a combination of forensics and testimonial evidence to solve the crimes.

Alston lamented at Wednesday’s press conference that the police had failed to extensively use “forensic investigation” and relied on witnesses’ testimonies.

When the witnesses refuse to cooperate, the police probe is terminated, he said.

But Pagdilao said: “The (PNP) Crime Laboratory is included in the composition of Task Force Usig. They used not only testimonial evidence but also forensic evidence. This is essential in any investigation.”

He said part of the investigation involved the analysis of bullet slugs and DNA samples.

Task Force Usig had maintained that contrary to the claim of militant groups, the number of leftist activists killed was actually 115.

It had said that many of the killings it was investigating were related to the supposed purging in the CPP/NPA communist movement.

PNP Deputy Director General Avelino Razon, former head of the task force, had also accused militant groups of “bloating” the list of those killed.

The militant group Karapatan claims 800 killings since President Arroyo assumed office. The Philippine Daily Inquirer’s count is 273 victims.

More time

Pagdilao said Alston probably needed more time in the country to come up with a better picture of the killings.

“I don’t think 10 days is enough to investigate these cases,” Pagdilao said.

But he said there was “something common” to the findings of the task force and of Alston’s team: “Some of the killings are attributable to a purge in the local communist movement.”

He also said Alston’s visit “might have a good effect in that it has encouraged witnesses to come out.”

Pagdilao insisted that Alston’s statements were not a rebuke of the PNP’s efforts to solve the killings.

“The task force was formed to have a focused investigation with a dedicated force, funds and logistics to serve this purpose. And they have done everything to find solutions to these cases. Many of the cases are considered solved and filed [in court],” he said.

Pagdilao also said the work of Task Force Usig had “not stopped.”

He said that Alston’s final report could also be helpful in the remaining cases.

Full cooperation

Ermita said the President made the decision to release the Melo Report after Alston called on her in Malacañang late Tuesday.

The Inquirer learned that Alston and the European Union had been furnished copies of the report, on the condition that these should not be leaked to the media.

Alston told Ms Arroyo that his mission had been “very useful,” and that he had expressed appreciation for the government’s full cooperation with his team, according to Ermita, who was present in the meeting along with several top Palace officials.

The President responded by vowing to utilize the “resources” of the government in the “investigation and prosecution of the perpetrators of the killings,” Ermita said.

“This is the only thing we can do to help the CHR in its work. We cannot tell [its members] what to do since they are constitutionally independent,” she said.

Alston also discussed the “difficulty” of solving the killings when the main witnesses had been reluctant to speak to the Melo Commission or the CHR, Ermita said.

He said Alston noted that the UN might not have the resources to send investigators to the country, but that he expected the EU to have such resources.

Ermita said Alston admitted that in the country, the complainants had “a wide range of choice of interlocutors to speak of, such as the CHR, even if they do not trust some parts of government.”

He then suggested to the President that her administration spend more funds on the investigation and prosecution of the killers, Ermita said. –Leila Salaverria Michael Lim Ubac Alcuin Papa, Inquirer with a report from Christine O. Avendaño