U.S. CONGRESS HAILED FOR MAKING HUMAN RIGHTS IMPROVEMENT AS CONDITION FOR MILITARY AID FOR PHILIPPINES

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PUBLISHED ON December 24, 2007 AT 1:27 PM

Senate Minority Leader Aquilino “Nene” Q. Pimentel,
Jr. (PDP-Laban) today hailed the stand taken by the
United States Congress to make part of American
military aid to the Philippines contingent on the
improvement of the human rights situation in the
country.

Pimentel said such condition imposed on the release of
the military assistance should serve as a warning to
the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) to put a
stop to extra-judicial killings and other human rights
violations.

Of the $30 million military that the US Congress is
committed to extend to the Philippines, $2 million
will be conditional on the outcome of the government’s
efforts to stop and solve extra-judicial killings of
political activists, which some military officials
admit, are part of the AFP’s counter-insurgency
operations.

Pimentel said the move of the US Congress to start
imposing such condition for the grant of aid is a big
slap on the AFP although he does not think that this
will result in extra-judicial killings being totally
eliminated.

“But it might minimize the tendency to use violence
against those who disagree with the policies of the
government,” he said.

Pimentel said what can put an end to the
extra-judicial killings is for President Arroyo, as
commander-in-chief, to tell AFP generals “enough is
enough.”

“But as we have said time and again, she isn’t capable
of doing so because some influential generals have her
in their pockets.”

He said as long as the President coddles some generals
who did her favors, especially in the 2004
Presidential Election, it is difficult to see how she
can put 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.

“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.
-o0o-

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