BY VICTOR REYES

CAMP TECSON, San Miguel, Bulacan – Defense Secretary Hermogenes Ebdane Jr. on Thursday said government cannot stop the rash of extra-judicial killings of mostly members of leftist organizations.

He said most of the killings, which militants say have reached at least 800 since President Arroyo assumed power in 2001, have been perpetrated by the New People’s Army.

"Efforts will not be enough … but it is a continuing act, continuing effort to stop these," he said during a visit to headquarters of the Army’s First Scout Ranger Regiment.

"But all situations cannot be controlled. Can we control the other side from their killing?" he said.

Ebdane said defense and military authorities are taking measures to stop the killings. The PNP’s Task Force Usig has attributed at least six of over 100 deaths to the military.

Ebdane said government can adopt measures for those under its control. "But those whom we cannot control, we can do nothing about it. Maybe we’ll just engage them in firefight so they can’t carry out more killings," he said.

AFP chief Gen. Hermogenes Esperon Jr., who accompanied Ebdane, said the military leadership is continuing efforts to inculcate respect for human rights among soldiers.

"We are putting a big emphasis on human rights. Effective 1991, all forces of the Armed Forces, may they be officers or enlisted men, are taught about human rights during basic and advance courses," he said.

Last Saturday, a leader of the leftist party-list organization Bayan Muna, Se-che Gandiano, was shot dead in Salay City in Misamis Oriental by unidentified men which the military said were NPA rebels.

Gandiano was among witnesses interviewed by the group of United Nations special rapporteur Philip Alston when the UN team came to the country last month for a two-week investigation into the killings.

Alston pointed to the military as responsible for the killings. He dismissed the military establishment’s defense that the killings were part of a communist purge.

Esperon said Gandiano was an Army "asset." He did not say when she started working for government forces.

He said Gandiano’s information has resulted in a number of clashes with the rebels.

"We would like to tell you that latest victim was an asset of the Philippine Army…That’s why we really want to go to the bottom of this. In fact we are condemning this killing. They (communists) are angry because their people are going to us," he said.

Esperon said the military has long been saying the rebels are engaged in such killings.

"That is part of their strategy. They are killing those who are opposing them," he said.

Told that Gandiano testified during the investigations conducted by Alston, Esperon said: "She testified but she was our asset and because of her work with us, there have been a series of encounters in the area… She had been giving us information, very reliable information."

Esperon also said that last week, the rebels tried to execute two leftist militants working as military assets in Agusan del Sur. The two were wounded, one of them seriously, and are in a hospital.

"As a result of these, I have directed our commanders in the field to take further measures to protect the civilians especially those that are now giving information to us," he said.