Arroyo no intention of addressing Melo Commission, Alston’s recommendations – RP communist movement

By Ronron
February 25, 2007

The communist movement in the Philippines is convinced that the Arroyo government is not inclined to addressing the issues raised against it by the Melo Commission and the United Nations Special Rapproteur on Extrajudicial Killings.

In a statement issued Sunday, National Democratic Front of the Philippine (NDFP) Chairperson on the Committee on Human Rights Fidel Agcaoili said with the way President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo and her officials reacted to the findings of the Melo Commission and Professor Philip Alston, it appears that the government will continue “to evade command responsibility for the extrajudicial killings.”

“The concerted negative reactions of the de fact president Gloria M. Arroyo, Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita, Justice Secretary Raul Gonzalez, and Armed Forces of the Philippines chief of staff Gen. Hermogenes Esperon, Jr. to the Alston statement and Melo Commission Report show that the Arroyo regime has no intention of ending the extrajudicial killings by special teams or death squads of the military,” Agcaoili said.

He said Arroyo has not even ordered for the arrest and prosecution of Maj. Gen. Jovito Palparan, Jr. who is being accused by human rights groups of violating human rights in his previous areas of command.

“She (Arroyo) deliberately refuses to hold responsible the military officers for the extrajudicial killings in their areas of command. Police investigators and the Inter-Agency Legal Assistance Group continue to cover up the murders, abductions and other crimes being committed by the death squads,” Agcaoili said.

Agcaoili particularly hit Esperon’s explanation that the extrajudicial killings are results of purging by the communist movement, and worse, attempted to support it with a “doctored” video clip of Professor Jose Maria Sison, chief political consultant of the NDFP Negotiating Panel, enumerating alleged legal front organizations of the Communist Party of the Philippines – New People’s Army (CPP-NPA).

He hinted that the government should acknowledge responsibility for the spate of extrajudicial killings as “they seek to counter the rise of popular opposition to their oppressive and exploitative rule.”

“They are driver by their own lust for power and lucre and they are all emboldened by the Anti-Terror Act, which Arroyo is about to sign. But they are blind to the lessons provided by the rise and fall of the Marcos fascist dictatorship,” Agcaoili said.

With this, he warned the government is “inciting the people to fight back and undertake all forms of resistance” against it.

Alston had said after his 10-day investigation in the Philippines that the military continues to deny that some of its rogue members committed the extrajudicial killings, while the Malacañang-created Melo Commission categorically blamed most of the killings to the AFP./DMS