PHILIPPINES: GMA URGED TO SET ASIDE MONEY FOR PROTECTING WITNESSES OF EXTRA-JUDICIAL KILLINGS

Senate Minority Leader Aquilino “Nene” Q. Pimentel,
Jr. (PDP-Laban) today challenged President Gloria
Macapagal-Arroyo to make good on her pledge to
strengthen the government’s Witness Protection Program
(WPP) as a key factor in resolving numerous cases of
extra-judicial killings of leftist activists,
journalists, judges and other victims.

Considering that the suspects in most of the summary
executions are soldiers or policemen, Pimentel said
the witnesses are usually reluctant to testify for
lack of government guarantee of their security by way
of placing them under the WPP.

He reminded the President of her commitment to beef up
the meager budget for the WPP being administered by
the Department of Justice so that witnesses to
extra-judicial slayings would be encouraged to come
forward and pin down the perpetrators.

This commitment was made by the President after
receiving in February, 2007, the report of the Melo
Commission which investigated the series of
extra-judicial killings.

The President has likewise promised to augment the
budget of the Commission on Human Rights partly to
enable it to extend protection to witnesses who
testify in its inquiries into the summary killings.

However, Pimentel lamented that this promise has
apparently been forgotten judging from the constant
complaints of the DOJ and CHR about the insufficient
budget for witness protection.

“If the government could not protect the lives of
witnesses, they could hardly be blamed for refusing to
testify in court. That is a big obstacle to the
solution of the extra-judicial killings. For without
the witnesses, how could these cases prosper in court?
How can the culprits be convicted?”

He observed that although the perpetrators in some of
the extra-judicial killings have been identified and
arrested, the litigation of the cases has yet to
result in conviction.

Pimentel said it is very important for the government
to show sincerity and determination if this
present-day scourge is to be eliminated.

Noting the President’s vow to achieve a “zero
political violence” the opposition senator said
“stopping extra-judicial killings is a matter of fact,
not of political talk.

“The Arroyo administration has been long on words,
very short on deeds on the issue of extra-judicial
killings,” Pimentel said.

He said as long as the President cuddles some generals
who did her favors, especially in the 2004
presidential election, it is difficult to see how she
can an end to the extra-judicial killings. Obviously,
he said Mrs. Arroyo is afraid of incurring the ire of
the generals some of whom had a hand in these
killings.

“Moreover, the way it looks now, she is more and more
trapped in the hands of some of the generals and is no
longer at liberty to order them as she should, being
the commander-in-chief of the armed forces. Unless she
demonstrates by acts and deeds that it is she who is
in command of the generals and not the other way
around, we will have more of the said misgovernance
that has characterized her illegitimate administration
since its inception,” Pimentel said.

Due to the spate of extra-judicial killings and the
administration’s wishy-washy way of handling them,
Pimentel said it is atrocious and insulting to the
sensibility of the Filipino people that the Spanish
government awarded human rights medallion to Mrs.
Arroyo during her recent visit to Madrid.

He said the Arroyo administration has even withheld
the payment of compensation to some 10,000 victims of
human rights violations during the Marcos dictatorial
regime despite the fact that funds for the purpose
were made available since 2003 in the form of a share
from the Swiss bank deposits of the late strongman
that were recovered by the government.
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