AJLPP Update

May 10, 2009

US-Arroyo Gov’t fails to stop killings, Political killing Still Persists

MANILA, Philippines – The Alliance-Philippines (AJLPP) condemns the US -Arroyo Regime for its failure to stop extrajudicial killings in the Philippines and its avowed policy that the military should end the insurgency "once and for all" by 2010.

The AJLPP beleives that this policy remained the justification of military officials in tagging political and civil society organizations as fronts of the Communist Party of the Philippines and its armed wing, the New People's Army.

These are some of the observations made by Philip Alston, the UN special rapporteur on extrajudicial killings in a recent report.

"Overall, the most important shortcoming has been the Government's failure to institutionalize or implement the many necessary reforms that have been identified. In the absence of such steps, the progress that has been made remains fragile and easily reversed," Alston said in his 16-page report.

Alston said the follow-up report was based on information provided by the government as well as through consultations with domestic and international civil society, and by reference to publicly available reports and materials.

Dated April 29 and submitted to the UN Human Rights Council, Alston's report was a follow up to his findings and recommendations, published in April 2008, following his February 2007 investigation into the killings and abductions of activists and journalists largely blamed on state security forces.

Findings of the Alston report t.

1. Observed that most of "the Government's formal actions in response to the Special Rapporteur's recommendations have been symbolic, and lack the substantive and preventive dimensions necessary to end the culture of impunity."

2. The principle of command responsibility has not been applied in alleged human rights violations by state agents, Alston said, noting that one proof was the report that retired Army Major General Jovito Palparan was to be appointed to the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency.(Palparan is now a partylist representative in Congress).

3. The Witness Protection Program has not been improved since 2007, which has been "one of the most significant causes of continued impunity in the Philippines," Alston said.

4. The government has not even taken the steps to implement policies that would allow congressional oversight of the military and the police, Alston said, arguing that "congressional oversight could be the entry point for much-needed reforms to the AFP and PNP, as well as for more generally promoting a human rights based approach within the security sector."

5. There has only been one successful government prosecution of a perpetrator of an extrajudicial killing and no convictions at all of any member of the Armed Forces for the murders of leftist activists even if an enlisted man had been arrested for the 2005 murder of activist Ricardo Ramos, Alston said.

Writ of Amparo Underutilized

6. Alston said that the Supreme Court has been responsive to the recommendations, particularly in issuing the writs of amparo and habeas data.However, the writ of amparo "appears to remain underutilized, and even misunderstood in some courts" while the writ of habeas data has been untested because of the financial costs it entails.

"The Supreme Court should be encouraged to further develop the effectiveness of these measures of relief," Alston said.

He added that the high court has yet to use its "constitutional powers over the practice of law to impress upon prosecutors their duty to uphold and protect human rights and to provide reasoned decisions for probable cause determinations."

The AJLPP is still following the developments in the violations of human rights in the Philippines and ongoing civil war in Mindanao.

More than 1.2 million people were affected in Mindanao and at least 600,000 became refugees becauseof the fighting between the MILF and the GRP troops.