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By Anthony Vargas and
Jomar Canlas, Reporters
Malacañang has vowed to staunch
the killings of militants in the country. But on Thursday the Armed
Forces and officials of other executive branch agencies slammed
separate reports by the Melo Commission and the UN special
rapporteur as biased in favor of communist insurgents.
At a press conference, the AFP
chief, Gen. Hermogenes Esperon, complained that both reports ignored
presentations by military and police brass.
“Right at the beginning the
commission concluded that the victims of these killings were almost
entirely, as I quote from the report, almost entirely members of
activist groups.” Esperon fumed.
“What happened to our
submission of a list of 1,227 liquidation perpetrated by the [NPA]?
Were these victims categorized as members [of activist groups]?”
He also criticized the UN special
rapporteur, Philip Alston, who characterized on Wednesday the
military as “almost totally in a state of denial.”
“He [Alston] could be the one
in a state of denial… we have repeatedly condemned in the
strongest term these unexplained killings. He refuses to believe
that the CPP-NPA could perpetrate such killings,” Esperon said.
“I have the feeling that he
[Alston] was not enthusiastic when I submitted to him the 1,227
liquidations by the NPA. He was not… he was not,” said Esperon.
“He said in his report that the
1,227 liquidations cannot be given credence because the NPA did not
claim responsibility for them. Of course they [NPA] will not claim
responsibility,” an angry Esperon told reporters.
The military chief also disagreed
with Alston’s recommendations, that the AFP acknowledge
human-rights abuses and rethink its counterinsurgency strategy.
“I do not know how familiar he
is with other insurgencies… We have been fighting this insurgency
for 39 years and I have been fighting it for the last 33 years,”
Esperon said.
He dismissed Alston’s advice,
noting the veteran rights investigator was only in the country for
ten days.
“I will not even claim
expertise on the matter… I do not know how extensive Alston’s
experience [in counterinsurgency] is, but I will challenge him to a
quiz in counterinsurgency,” Esperon said.
The military chief also ordered
troops not to attack members of legal leftist organizations, which
the government has tagged as fronts of the leftist underground
movement.
Esperon issued this order after
showing a video clip of CPP founder, Jose Ma. Sison, identifying
several left leaning groups as their legal democratic fronts.
The groups included the Bagong
Alyansang Makabayan (Bayan), Kilusang Mayo Uno (KMU), League of
Filipino Students (LFS) and Alliance of Concerned Teachers (ACT)
among others.
Justice Secretary Raul M.
Gonzalez, meanwhile, said he doubts that Alston’s report would be
accepted “in full” by the United Nations General Assembly.
Gonzalez said it is impossible
for the UN to immediately tackle Alston’s report since the UN
Commission on Human Rights should hear first the issues involved and
give a chance to the Philippine government to refute the same.
Gonzalez said that Permanent
Representative to the UN and former Chief Justice Hilario Davide Jr.
is duty bound to refute the report of Alston.
Gonzalez likened Alston to a
messenger and said he did not have the authority to speak for the
entire UN body.
Alston, at a press briefing,
stressed that he was an independent investigator and did not speak
for the international body.
Alston also said he has no
control over how the UN would receive his report.
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