Is Aquino in denial about extrajudicial killings?

President Benigno S. Aquino III betrayed his apparent mindset about the extrajudicial killings in the Philippines – a thinking that, I’m afraid, doesn’t inspire confidence in his or his spokesman’s repeated avowal that his administration will do its best stop the killings and bring the perpetrators to justice.

After a meeting with the military top brass on Monday, Aquino told reporters: “In general, we cannot say that these abuses are the policy of the state.” And then he added: “Many of these killings are due to personal feuds.”

This reminds me of what Philip Alston, the United Nation’s special rapporteur on extrajudicial killings who investigated the atrocities in the Philippines in 2007, said in his 2008 report on the results of his investigation: that the Philippine military is in denial about the killings and the involvement of soldiers and agent in most of these.

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