BY JOCELYN MONTEMAYOR

A FOUR-MAN team from the United Nations is arriving Sunday or Monday to look into the surge of political killings, Justice Secretary Raul Gonzalez said yesterday.

Gonzalez said the UN team, which includes Philip Alston, UN special rapporteur on extra-judicial execution and summary execution, will be in the country for three weeks.

Its activities include interviewing members of civil society and government representatives.

Gonzalez said the UN team made its own arrangements. Government did not volunteer to help lest it be accused of "meddling with their private investigation."

"We’re hoping that they will see the light. We’re ready to explain…We have enough records to show them, to show how many people were sent to mass graves," he said.

In Misamis Oriental Thursday, a militant farmer leader was gunned down by five armed men in his house in Silay.

Dalmacio Gandinao, 80, was the 831st victim of extra-judicial killings since President Arroyo assumed power in January 2001, according to the militant group Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas.

Gandinao was provincial chair of Bayan Muna and head of the Misamis Oriental Farmers’ Association, a provincial chapter of KMP.

Carl Ala, KMP information officer, said Gandinao was having supper with his wife and three grandchildren when he was shot. The unidentified gunmen then fled on a van.

In Cavite yesterday, a member of a labor union survived an ambush try after the guns of the unidentified gunmen malfunctioned after two tries.

Leovino Guyamin, a member of the EMI-Yazaki labor union, had just attended a labor dispute hearing at the Imus regional trial court around 2 p.m. and was conferring with a lawyer when the gunmen approached.

Gonzalez said he was unhappy with "too much" foreign involvement in the investigation into political killings, but President Arroyo invited the UN team and explained that it was part of government policy.

He said with the arrival of the UN team might stop the unexplained killings which he said are being used to destabilize government.

"They think they can bring down the government by killing people because they can see it is being blamed on the government. That is why I am appealing to the international community. You know we are putting serious effort in ending the unexplained killings but let us not allow these to be used as propaganda," he said.

Press Secretary Ignacio Bunye said the UN team’s investigation is not a form of foreign intervention.

"I think it’s better if we have a UN team visiting us to see for itself what is going on in the Philippines," Bunye said.

Government early this month sent formal letters to the European Union, and the governments of United Kingdom and Northern Ireland, the Netherlands, Germany, Spain, Finland, and Sweden, inviting them to assist in the investigations, particularly that being conducted by the Melo Commission.

The Melo Commission, which the President created in August last year to investigate the killings, submitted its report to Malacañang last week. It said soldiers have murdered hundreds of Left-wing activists since 2001 and their commanding officers should be held responsible.

Malacañang would not make public the Melo report, saying it was not complete.

Arroyo extended the life of the Melo Commission.

The Philippine Alliance of Human Rights Advocates (Pahra) welcomed Alston’s visit but said government should not "muddle" the investigation by controlling the activities of the fact-finding team.

"We are wary though that the appointment of national security adviser Norberto Gonzales as the ‘over-all’ in-charge of the schedule of the activities during Alton’s visit is an attempt by the Philippine government to cover up state responsibility over the widespread, systematic and organized pattern of extra-judicial killings," said Renato Mabunga, Phara secretary general.

"We are calling on the government to respect the independence of the UN mission investigation. The Arroyo government should withdraw its own design of maneuvering the process. It should rather be more facilitative and serious in finding out the truth behind the series of extra-judicial execution," he said.

According the militant group Kilusan para sa Pambansang Demokrasya (KPD), Alston is scheduled to meet with civil society organizations on Sunday.

On the 14th, Alston will be presented with cases of extra-judicial killings.

KPD said Alston is also scheduled to visit Central Luzon on February 17. The UN special rapporteur will also visit Baguio and Davao.

House minority leader Francis "Chiz" Escudero hailed the decision of the UN High Commission on Human Rights to investigate the killings.

"It is high time that an independent, highly respected international organization looked into the problem and shamed the Arroyo administration into compliance with the at least seven treaties on human rights to which it is a signatory and as newly appointed member of the UN Human Rights Council," he said.

"We in the political opposition don’t want to prejudge the result of the investigation, but the Melo Commission in its recent report blamed most of the killings and disappearances on the police and the military. We maintain that the inability of this administration to extend protection to its citizens proves its illegitimacy," he added. – With Reinir Padua and Raymond Africa