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By Anthony
Vargas and Sam Mediavilla Reporters
President
Arroyo on Friday assured members of the Armed Forces of her full
confidence even as she urged top brass to acknowledge the criticism
and recommendations of two probes on extrajudicial killings.
Malacañang
spokesman, Secretary Ignacio Bunye, said the President vowed to
resolve the issue of activist and journalist killings with
“fairness and justice.”
But at Camp
Aguinaldo, retired general Jovito Palparan slammed the Melo
Commission created by his commander in chief, interpreting its
critical tone as proof of enemy infiltration.
“Almost the
words of the enemy are there. So I suspect there’s an enemy inside
them [Melo Commission] . . . that is writing for them, so that’s
why they did not work,” Palparan told reporters at a press
briefing.
“The Melo
Commission report is totally flawed. Why? Their report has no basis
. . . it’s more of guesses . . . most are [only] speculations.
Most of my statements were misinterpreted,” Palparan added.
At the same
time, he sneered at the commission for coming out with half-baked
conclusions.
“Bakla nga
’yung kanilang conclusion [their conclusion is half-baked],”
Palparan railed. “May be held responsible . . . may be? How you
would believe that.”
Sacrifice
Bunye said the
President is committed to “uphold the good name of the 99 percent
of the soldiery who take the cudgels for our national security 24
hours a day, seven days a week.”
The President
maintained, Bunye said, that she has never doubted the
professionalism and integrity of the AFP, as well as the
“readiness to sacrifice life and limb in combat or in perilous
disasters among our soldiers.”
Both the Melo
Commission and the UN special rapporteur, Philip Alston,
acknowledged the challenges faced by the military.
Alston said he
believed the Philippine military is a strong, disciplined fighting
force but that government policies created an atmosphere conducive
to the perpetration of political killings.
Military
Public Information chief, Lt. Col. Bartolome Bacarro, said the
critical reports would not distract them from performing their
duties.
The official
said the negative reports would serve as inspiration for soldiers to
perform their job.
“Well I
would believe it would be the other way around, that these
individuals will continue performing their job in accordance to how
they should perform it, to disprove these allegations,” Bacarro
said.
The Palace
spokesman noted that the Melo body admitted the role of the military
could not be taken lightly.
“It is
absolutely necessary because of the threat to the nation posed by
communist insurgency,” he pointed out.
Bunye
explained the government as well as the AFP and the PNP have no
better option but to “take everything in a totality.”
But he said
the institutions should acknowledge reports by the Melo body, the
[UN rapporteur Philip] Alston and the Commission on Human Rights.
“All of
these will tend to reinforce one another, and we believe that this
is a significant milestone in moving toward the solution of
unexplained killings.”
The retired
army general insisted that he has nothing to do with killings being
imputed on him by leftist activists and lately by the commission,
saying “killing” is not part of his strategy against communist
rebels.
“Instead of
killing them, why not scare them from supporting [communist rebels],
staging atrocities, spying. Which is better, killing them or scaring
them?” said Palparan.
The retired
army general also added that the evidence, which were presented by
leftist militant groups before the commission were, only
“circumstantial” ones.
“They did
not dig deeper . . . so their output therefore is I think
‘Hao-Hsiao’ [imitation] or it is only a re-echo, mostly just a
re-echo of the enemy’s propaganda,” said Palparan.
The retired
general also scoffed at the conclusion and recommendation made by
Alston, whom he described as already “biased” against the
military even before starting his probe.
Dismissive
Palparan
insisted he had nothing to do with the killings.
The retired
general also scoffed at the report of Alston.
“He [Alston]
had a preconceived conclusion because of the many complaints he
received against [us]. So when he got here, they already had a
conclusion,” Palparan said in Filipino.
It was
impossible for Alston to come-out with a “credible” conclusion,
the general said.
“In 10 days
you cannot have an in depth or very sound conclusion or analysis . .
. but after 10 days he has a conclusion. That conclusion has no
basis,” he added.
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