Despite move, rights groups are wary
By Carlos H. Conde
International Herald Tribune
Published: February 5, 2007
MANILA: When President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo announced that she would ask European countries to help investigate a series of extrajudicial killings in the Philippines, it may have been her most important act to try and ensure justice for hundreds of victims of political murders here.
Much of that optimism rests on the fact that Filipinos view Europeans as serious about protection of human rights and that, more than most nations in the international community, they have been vocal in their outrage about the killings and demand for the violence to stop.
Last week, Arroyo announced that she would invite the European Union, as well as Spain, Sweden and Finland, to send teams to the Philippines to help investigate the murders of Filipino political activists, journalists, lawyers, judges, human rights advocates and church workers.
Human rights advocates, however, remain wary. Last week, six members of leftist groups were killed, execution- style, while another survived an attack. These deaths, according to a list maintained by the local human rights group Karapatan, has brought the number of victims since 2001 to 830.
Karapatan’s figure, however, is being questioned by the government because it includes murdered journalists, lawyers and judges, not just activists. The group said that 365 of the 830 were activists.
Arroyo’s request for European help was among several initiatives, including the creation of a special court and an inter-agency investigating body, that the president said she would put into action after a commission found that the majority of these killings were perpetrated by the Philippine military.
Prior to the disclosure of the commission’s findings, the government had always ignored the allegation against the military, dismissing it as leftist propaganda.
But after the head of the commission, the former Supreme Court judge Jose Melo, disclosed that most of the killings were committed by soldiers, Arroyo promised to act. She has not yet made public the commission’s report, which she received from Melo on Tuesday.
“It is disheartening to contemplate that anyone upholding people’s rights could engage in such deed,” Arroyo said Wednesday. “I need to fully absorb what it means.”
Many here welcomed Arroyo’s responses to the commission’s findings, particularly the one about engaging the Europeans, because the credibility of the commission has been questioned by families of the victims. According to the findings by Human Rights Watch, based in New York, late last year, most of the victims do not trust the Philippine authorities to investigate the murders.
The New Patriotic Alliance, the country’s largest leftist organization, said Thursday that Arroyo’s move was meant to “appease the growing outrage of the international community” toward the killings.
Arroyo, the Philippine Daily Inquirer said in an editorial on Thursday, “has, wittingly or unwittingly, provided the only effective guarantee of an impartial, thorough and credible investigation of the killings.” It is almost inconceivable, the paper added “for representatives of foreign governments to become a party to a whitewash, such as what some critics have called the Melo Commission report.”
The EU had been vocal about its concerns over the killings.
Weeks before Arroyo visited Europe in early September, she created the Melo Commission and assured European leaders about her commitment to stop the deaths. She also met with Amnesty International in London and promised the group the same thing. But the killings continued and so did the international outcry.
The international attention, many here say, will pressure the government to address the problem in the months ahead with more violence expected ahead of local elections in May.
Bayan Muna, the leftist group whose members have been the victims in several of the killings, warned last month of an escalation of attacks against activists.
Alistair MacDonald, head of the European Commissio’s delegation in the Philippines, was reported to have said that Arroyo’s responses were “encouraging” and that the EU was “very interested” in the investigations being carried out by the government.
Part of the human rights groups’ caution stems from the view that Arroyo is beholden to the military.
A former vice president, she came to power after the military turned its back on the former president, Joseph Estrada, during a “people power” uprising in 2001. Her cabinet is dominated by former generals. With the exception of Ferdinand Marcos, Arroyo is the only president to have appointed so many military chiefs of staff — nine so far — during a presidency.
“She owes her political life to the military. Why then should we expect her to go after the people that keep her in power?” said Marie Hilao-Enriquez, Karapatan’s secretary general.
The military takes exception to these allegations. “They always say that,” said Major General José Angel Honrado, a spokesman for the armed forces. “They have nothing but bad things to say about the military. But if the evidence warrants, we won’t hesitate to prosecute our men involved in these killings. All we ask is we be given our day in court.”
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