Press Release
August 11, 2007

PUBLIC CYNICAL OF AFP CHIEF'S CREATION
OF COURT MARTIAL VS. SOLDIERS LINKED TO KILLINGS

Senate Minority Leader Aquilino "Nene" Q. Pimentel, Jr. (PDP-Laban) urged the leadership of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) to fully cooperate with government prosecutors and the civilian courts in the investigation and prosecution of extra-judicial killings of political activists and other victims if its attempt to go after soldiers involved in this heinous crime is to gain credibility.

Pimentel made the statement in reaction to the reported order of Gen. Hermogenes Esperon, AFP chief-of-staff, for the creation of military tribunals to conduct court martial proceedings against military officers and men accused of political slayings and other human rights violations.

He said Esperon's latest move will only spark public cynicism for as long as the AFP is in a state of denial over the alleged involvement of the military in the extra-judicial killings.

The AFP leadership, the minority leader noted, has in fact stubbornly refused to comply with the order of the Court of Appeals to submit to the court a copy of the Army provost marshal's investigation report on the abduction of activist-agriculturist Jonas Burgos in response to the request of the victim's mother, Editha Burgos, in connection with the habeas corpus petition being heard by the CA.

"Gen. Esperon is only muddling the issue of culpability of some soldiers," Pimentel said.

"He is only trying to project himself as a human rights defender. Too late in the day I think for him to succeed."

Pimentel said what the AFP top brass should do instead is to disband the so-called death squads, which according to the Melo fact-finding commission, may have carried out the extra-judicial killings of leftist activists who have been tagged as enemies of the state.

He warned the AFP that the unabated political killings has not only eroded public trust in the military but also outraged the international community to the point that foreign military and development aid to the Philippines is being jeopardized.

Already, there is a move in the United State Congress to reduce American military aid to the Philippines, as confirmed by US Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte during his recent visit to the country.

Pimentel also cited a joint letter by 43 American lawmakers to President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo in which they expressed alarm over the continuing and unsolved political killings. This was a tantamount to a veiled threat from the US Congress to cut or withdraw American aid unless there are serious and determined efforts to solve the problem.

The minority leader also emphasized that the Supreme Court has already designated 99 Regional Trial Courts as special criminal courts to try cases of extra-judicial killings.

However, he observed that most cases of political killings are hardly progressing because they are bogged down at the level of investigation and prosecution.

Oftentimes, he said witnesses are too afraid to come forward and testify. Such drawback, he said, can be solved if the government will substantially increase the funding for the Witness Protection Program of the Department of Justice, as recommended by the July 17-18 summit on extra-judicial killings and enforced disappearances sponsored by the SC.

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