Tuesday, January 30, 2007 Cabaero: Melo Commission's findings By Nini B. Cabaero Beyond 30
NOTHING new was said by the Melo Commission about who it thought were the persons behind the series of extrajudicial killings in the country.
The independent body headed by retired Supreme Court Justice Jose Melo found members of the military and leftist groups and hired gunmen of politicians as those involved in the rash of politically-motivated killings. This was its conclusion after months of hearings following its creation last September by presidential order.
The results of the investigation by the Melo Commission were revealed over the weekend by Bishop Juan De Dios Pueblos, one of those who took part in the probe.
The Catholic bishop said: “We have identified that there are killings really perpetuated by the military. There are other killings by politicians and the military, politicians and their goons, and killings as part of a (family) vendetta. There are also some killings perpetrated by the leftists.”
It sounded like a blanket statement that puts the blame on the whole gamut of the military to leftists to some abusive politicians. It was a re-statement of what the families of the victims already knew.
Most of these families already have their theories of who may have killed their loved ones and they, because of their suspicion, have hoped the commission would undertake some super-effort to pursue justice.
From the start, the Melo Commission was faced with a difficult task. Since President Arroyo issued Administrative Order 157 creating the independent body, commission members had it tough. They had to battle doubts over the credibility of those who comprise the commission. They had to live up to the people’s expectations of concrete results in the probe of the killings of media people and activists, those killings feared to have been tolerated or sponsored by government. They had to call for investigation certain individuals, like the controversial retired Army general Jovito Palparan, to answer to allegations.
Aside from the work that was before them, they had to face the ghost of past independent investigating bodies whose work have had little or no impact in addressing the core problem that was the reason for their creation. Take, for example, the Davide Commission that in the late 1980s investigated the coup phenomenon. That investigating body came up with its findings and recommendations. It did its work, all right, but the phenomenon of coup attempts continued beyond the Davide report.
The report of the Melo Commission, if the findings revealed by the bishop over the weekend were to be the body’s conclusion, is bound to suffer the same fate as the Davide report — as just another set of documents filed away in some government office.
