In UN report, Philippines’s counter-insurgency program blamed for killings

Philip Alston, the UN’s special rapporteur on extrajudicial killings, submitted his report on the Philippines to the UN General Assembly today. In his report, Alston points to one key factor in the series of extrajudicial killings of activists: “Many in the Government have concluded that numerous civil society organizations are ‘fronts’ for the Communist Party of the Philippines and its armed group, the New People’s Army. One response has been counter-insurgency operations that result in the extrajudicial execution of leftist activists. In some areas, the leaders of leftist organizations are systematically hunted down by interrogating and torturing those who may know their whereabouts, and they are often killed following a campaign of individual vilification designed to instill fear into the community.” Download or read the report (PDF) here.

Below is the reaction by the National Democratic Front of Alston’s report:

PRESS STATEMENT
16 October 2007

NDFP NEGOTIATING PANEL EXPRESES APPRECIATION
FOR ALSTON REPORT TO THE U.N.

LUIS G. JALANDONI
Chairperson, NDFP Negotiating Panel

The National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) Negotiating
Panel deeply appreciates the Report of UN Special Rapporteur Philip
Alston to the UN General Assembly on extrajudicial killings in the
Phiippines. Prof. Alston hits the nail on the head when he pinpoints the Arroyo
government’s counter-insurgency plan, Oplan Bantay Laya, as the major
reason for the drastic increase in the extrajudicial killings of
leftist activists in the last six years.

His exposé of the regime’s 110-page “order of battle”, signed by
top military and police officials, brings to light the top policy
decisions of the Arroyo regime in carrying out death-squad assassinations
on a nation-wide scale. Alston reiterates his firm view that the
regime’s military is in a state of denial regarding the numerous
extrajudicial killings convincingly attributed to them.

In his powerful report, Prof. Alston describes the deadly consequences
of the Arroyo government’s counter-insurgency policies. “Many in
the Government have concluded that numerous civil society organizations
are ‘fronts’ for the Communist Party of the Philippines and its
armed group, the New People’s Army. One response has been
counter-insurgency operations that result in the extrajudicial execution of leftist
activists. In some areas, the leaders of leftist organizations are
systematically hunted down by interrogating and torturing those who may know
their whereabouts, and they are often killed following a campaign of
individual vilification designed to instill fear into the community.”

The NDFP Negotiating Panel likewise appreciates Prof. Alston’s firm
rejection of the claims of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP)
that the New People’s Army (NPA) is responsible for most of the killings
through so-called internal purges. Prof. Alston states, “The
military’s insistence that the ‘purge theory’ is correct can only be
viewed as a cynical attempt to displace responsibility.”

The NDFP Negotiating Panel again vigorously condemns the Arroyo regime
for the extrajudicial killings and enforced disappearances of more than
a thousand unarmed activists and reiterates that the regime’s Oplan
Bantay Laya plan and gross human rights violations are major
impediments to the resumption of the peace negotiations between the Government of
the Republic of the Philippines (GRP) and the NDFP.

The NDFP Negotiating Panel takes this occasion to reiterate the firm
commitment of the revolutionary movement to adhere to the Geneva
Conventions and Protocols, to the Rules of the NPA and other principles and
policies of its judicial and legal system, and to the GRP-NDFP
Comprehensive Agreement on Respect for Human Rights and International
Humanitarian Law (CARHRIHL).

We hope that the Alston Report to the United Nations will give added
impetus to the campaign to stop the extrajudicial killings and other
gross human rights violations committed by the Arroyo regime and open up
possibilities for the resumption of peace talks directed at addressing
the roots of the armed conflict through social, economic and political
reforms beneficial to the people. ###

REFERENCE:
Ruth de Leon
Executive Director
NDFP International Information Office
Tel.+31-30-2310431
Fax +31-84-7589930
Email: ndf@casema.nl