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Thursday, August 17, 2006
Arroyo to set up commission to investigate political killings (3:20 p.m.)
MANILA - President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo will soon form a commission to investigate political killings in the Philippines, her spokesman said Thursday amid international criticism of her government's human rights record.
The announcement by Press Secretary Ignacio Bunye came after two fatal attacks on left-wing activists. It also followed a report released Tuesday by London-based Amnesty International warning that the killings of activists could lead to spiraling violence as the government intensifies its campaign against communist rebels.
"President Arroyo is now mulling over her short list of appointees for a new, powerful commission that will probe the killings of journalists and activists," Bunye said in a statement without identifying anyone under consideration.
He said the commission will have the "credibility and the clout to move ongoing probes forward" and will examine policies, recommend reforms and mete out justice in cooperation with local and international groups.
"The president has condemned these killings in the strongest terms and is determined to take all the necessary measures to protect human rights and uphold the rule of law," Bunye said.
In separate attacks Wednesday, unidentified gunmen killed Orlando Rivera, 49, a member of the left-wing fishermen's association Pamalakaya, in a fishing village northwest of Manila, and Julie Velasquez, provincial chapter chairman of the Peasant Movement of the Philippines, who was attending a wake in northern Nueva Ecija province.
The Amnesty International report said there were 51 political killings in the first six months of this year compared with 66 for all of 2005.
The assault methods, the victims' left-wing ideology and a "climate of impunity" that has apparently shielded the killers showed "that the attacks are not an unconnected series of criminal murders but constitute a politically motivated pattern of killings," it said.
The Philippine human rights group Karapatan said that since Arroyo came to power in 2001, more than 700 civilians, including at least 310 left-wing activists, have been killed by suspected security forces, who often refer to left-wing groups as fronts for communist rebels.
In a sharply worded criticism, the Hong Kong-based Asian Human Rights Commission said in a statement Thursday that Arroyo has shown "no political will to stop these killings." The group asked whether she was supporting or incapable of stopping the killings.
"As authoritarianism takes root, there is a political inevitability of silencing dissent," the group said. "What seems to be taking place in the Philippines is the shift of will of the actual power holders to silence dissent by drastic means." (AP) |
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