N 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.
