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By Katrice R. Jalbuena, Reporter
The European Union (EU) and the
Philippines announced Friday a program to help address the
country’s unsolved extrajudicial killings that have brought
worldwide criticism.
Ambassador Alistair MacDonald,
Head of the European Commission delegation in Manila, told reporters
during a joint press conference, that the EU has noted and is
pleased that there has been a decline in the extrajudicial killings
in the country since the reports of former Philippine Supreme Court
Justice Jose Melo and UN Special Rapporteur Philip Alston in 2007.
“The EU wants to help the
people of the Philippines—government and civil society—to work
together to bring an end to these extrajudicial killings and to
identify and bring to justice the perpetrators,” MacDonald said.
“This is a Philippine problem that needs a Philippine-based
solution, and the EU is prepared to help in the strengthening of the
Philippines’ capability to reach these solutions.”
Undersecretary Enrique Manalo of
the Department of Foreign Affairs said, “The Philippines has
already taken pro-active measures in dealing with the issue of
extrajudicial killings.”
“The EU’s proposed technical
assistance to the Philippines on the issue of extrajudicial killings
will not only support the government’s ongoing efforts at
addressing the issue but will also provide the government with
long-term capabilities to address these violent acts,” he added.
The Philippines and EU have
reached a basic agreement on the main elements of a technical
cooperation package, to be known as the European Union Justice
Assistance Mission.
The mission will be implemented
this year and will focus on providing support, advice, technical
assistance and training in areas such as the criminal justice
system—including the judiciary, prosecution and police. The will
also involve the Office of the Ombudsman, the Commission on Human
Rights and civil society groups. And the agreement will entail human
rights awareness training for the police and military.
The EU has also proposed to
support the establishment of a credible and effective national
monitoring mechanism that will bring together all Philippine
stakeholders to help track the progress in addressing the issue of
extrajudicial killings.
Needs Assessment Mission
The Philippines and EU also
released to the public the Needs Assessment Mission report. It was
the starting point for discussion on the formulation of the justice
assistance mission.
The Needs Assessment Mission came
as a result of the Melo Commission report, after which President
Gloria Arroyo directed Foreign Affairs to engage the EU in improving
the government’s capabilities to investigate killings and
disappearances to strengthen its capacity to protect human rights.
Earlier, the Philippines hosted
the Needs Assessment Mission, a group of independent experts
contracted by the EU to identify areas of possible technical
cooperation.
The report noted that the
government showed clear political will to address the issue. What
was needed was support for the government’s resolve in the form of
providing the appropriate resources.
Palace promise
Malacañang said it would
continue carrying out its programs addressing extrajudicial killings
in the country despite a new report that says government efforts
failed to put most of the perpetrators behind bars.
“Stopping these killings is the
foremost agenda of the government and the Arroyo administration will
continue to exert efforts to resolve this issue,” Deputy Press
Secretary Anthony Golez told The Manila Times. He was reacting to
the statement by the EU Needs Assessment Mission, which urges the
government to strengthen its investigatory and prosecutorial
measures because human rights violations continue and existing
programs failed to result in major convictions.
“In fact, with our programs in
place, the number of extrajudicial killings has gone down,” he
added.
--With Angelo S. Samonte and AFP
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