FRIDAY |MARCH 02, 2007 | PHILIPPINES

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‘The NPAs did it. The NPAs did it.’


Editorial
 

‘What do we hear from Gloria Arroyo? Nothing, absolutely nothing.’

UN special rapporteur Philip Alston said the Armed Forces is in a "state of almost total denial" of the summary executions of militants. Alston should strike out that word "almost" in his report due to be submitted in three months to the UN Council on Human Rights. The AFP is in total denial that its men are behind the "distressing" level of summary executions going on.

Alston, it will be recalled, said in his initial report that there was no credible evidence the communist rebels were killing what the government claims to be their fellow travelers. The Melo Commission practically came to the same conclusion when it junked the AFP and the PNP’s claim there is an ongoing purge in the rebel ranks.

Despite the parallel findings of Alston and the Melo Commission, the AFP to this day continues to insist the NPAs were doing the killing. AFP chief Gen. Hermogenes Esperon is even mounting a renewed campaign on his favorite propaganda line.

The United States early this week offered to help in the investigation of the summary executions. The PNP immediately welcomed the offer of assistance, but said the assistance it needs is in the form of training of investigators and donation of modern crime laboratory equipment. The US, in response, said it will have its people coordinate with the PNP on the latter’s wish list.

Obviously we are being treated to a zarzuela here. The problem is not the lack of a Crime Scene Investigation mobile lab. Reelectionist Sen. Ralph Recto must have been seeing too many sleuths relying on technology on television when he expressed support for the PNP’s request for forensic equipment.

It’s not a problem of matching slugs with a pistol believed to be used in the crime, a procedure which, by the way, the professionals at the PNP Crime Lab can do in their sleep.

The failure to track down the killers is due to the indifference of police investigators to pursue leads when these point to military men. Alston has denounced the culture of impunity that gives rise to the killings. He should have also cited the typically Filipino "tayo-tayo" syndrome. When lawmen turn into law breakers, they protect each other.

And while the AFP-scripted and -directed production is going on, what do we hear from Gloria Arroyo who has vowed countless times to end the killings? Nothing, absolutely nothing.

Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita is doing the talking. And what this retired general is spouting is not reassuring. On Wednesday, for example, he expressed confidence that retired Chief Justice Hilario Davide Jr., the newly appointed permanent represented to the UN, can defend Arroyo’s human rights record before the international body.

Poor Davide. We can already see him pathetically repeating the AFP’s mantra – "The NPAs did it. The NPAs did it" – before the UN.

 
 


 



















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