April 18, 2007, Inquirer, 3 US solons to PNP: Respect human rights, by Alcuin Papa,

April 18, 2007, Inquirer, 3 US solons to PNP: Respect human rights, by Alcuin Papa,

MANILA, Philippines -- Respect for human rights was in essence the recommendation put forth by a three-member team from the US House of Representatives? foreign affairs committee during a meeting Tuesday with ranking officials of the Philippine National Police.

The team -- composed of Cobb Mixter, senior executive staff member of California Rep. Tom Lantos, Republican Rep. Dennis Halpin and Democratic Rep. Melissa Adamson -- attended a closed-door briefing at the PNP headquarters in Camp Crame in connection with the unabated killing of journalists and leftist activists.

"The recommendation is to respect human rights. And we assured them that the primordial intent of the PNP is to protect human rights and civil liberties. The best antidote to the killings is still protection of human rights. And we gave them that assurance," PNP spokesperson Chief Supt. Samuel Pagdilao told reporters.

The members of the US team were accompanied by Patricia Ann Paez and Mario Fernandez, both of the Philippine Embassy in Washington, Val Roque of the Department of Foreign Affairs and Assistant Interior Secretary Danilo Valero.

PNP Deputy Director General Avelino Razon said he invited the US congressional team over when he was in the United States along with other Philippine officials in March.

"This is part of our effort to present to the US Congress the true picture of what is happening here," said Razon, who is also the PNP deputy chief for administration.

The US congressional team arrived in Manila last week to discuss US-RP defense and security cooperation as well as look into the political killings.

Razon said the team was ?anxious to find out? what the Philippine government, particularly the PNP?s Task Force Usig, was doing to stop the killings.

He described the exchange with the team as "cordial."

Executive order

Razon said Malacañang was preparing an executive order outlining closer collaboration between law enforcement agencies and prosecutors to address the killings.

He said the US congressional team had promised to help train local authorities to comply with the executive order.

PNP Director Geary Barias, chief of Task Force Usig, said the executive order was being drafted by the office of Chief Presidential Legal Counsel Sergio Apostol and would "empower prosecutors to participate in the investigation from the start rather than after the gathering of evidence against the suspects to ensure a conviction."

It will also allow prosecutors "to join law enforcers in gathering evidence against the suspects," he said, adding:

"The investigation will be patterned after the US judicial system, where prosecutors are empowered to join the investigation from the beginning."

Barias said that in the present setup, not only for the political killings but also for other crimes, "prosecutors come in only after the suspects have been charged in court."

"And police consider the cases solved after arrests are made and charges are filed," he said.

Disparity in numbers

According to Barias, among the things discussed during Tuesday's briefing for the US congressional team were the disparity of the numbers of those killed as presented by various groups, and the difficulty faced by police in investigating the cases.

By the count of human rights groups, as many as 843 political killings (including the April 16 shooting of Willie Jerus of the militant farmers group Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas) have occurred since Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo became President in 2001. (The Philippine Daily Inquirer count is 299 and does not include deaths in clashes.)

But the PNP has officially recorded only 116 political activists and 26 journalists killed since 2001.

Barias said the PNP also told the US congressional team of the Arroyo administration's efforts to solve the killings, including the forming of the Melo Commission and the establishment of special courts to try the cases.

The unabated political killings have drawn international censure, among the most recent being the finding of United Nations Special Rapporteur Philip Alston that the Philippine military appeared to be in denial about the magnitude of the problem.

The US Senate foreign relations subcommittee on East Asian and Pacific affairs has also recently looked into the matter and suggested that foreign aid should be tied to the resolution of the problem.
With a report from Nancy C. Carvajal