US Senate to link aid
to action on killings ‘We have a lot more
leverage,’ solon warns
BY JENNIE L. ILUSTRE
WASHINGTON – Sen. Barbara Boxer, chair of the
foreign relations subcommittee on East Asian and Pacific
Affairs, said she would link US military aid to the Philippines
to "transparency and results" of Philippine government action on
extra-judicial killings.
The Democrat from California, presiding at
the subcommittee hearing Wednesday afternoon (Thursday in
Manila), said, "For too long the government of the Philippines
has not taken sufficient action to address extrajudicial
killings and bring those responsible to justice."
Manila has to act "or these funds aren’t just
gonna come," she said at hearing’s end nearly two hours later.
"We have a lot more leverage. That is one of the points of this
hearing."
US SEN. Barbara Boxer yesterday rebuffed a
Philippine government offer to have top police and military
officials testify before a hearing of the foreign affairs
subcommittee on East Asia and Pacific Affairs which she heads on
the rash of extra-judicial killings.
"I don’t understand why you have to send
military and police to a hearing that a couple of senators are
holding to look at allegations of human rights abuses… We made
it very clear and to their credit they responded. They said they
will not send any military, they won’t send any police, and they
said they won’t send any intelligence agents," reports quoted
Boxer as saying.
PNP Deputy Director General Avelino Razon
Jr., head of Task Force Usig and head of the team, said they
were sent to Washington to serve as resource persons to
Ambassador Willy Gaa, who testified during the hearing.
THE Supreme Court yesterday issued a
temporary restraining order against a Pasig court’s injunction
against the implementation of the electronic passport project of
the Department of Foreign Affairs.
In a three-page resolution, the SC’s Third
Division granted the petition of the DFA and Bangko Sentral,
represented by the Office of the Solicitor General, for the
issuance of a TRO on the Feb. 14, 2007 ruling of Pasig Judge
Franco Falcon.
The injunction was issued on the petition of
BCA International Corp., the company firm previously contracted
by the DFA to undertake the e-passport project.
