Analysis
The Melo Probe: Gloria’s Latest Fraud?
With the Melo
Commission just a phony, the President exonerating the AFP from any
involvement in the extra-judicial killings and the CHR in limbo with
regards its own investigation, whom will the families of the victims of
political murders turn to for justice?
By Bobby Tuazon
Bulatlat
|
WARNING:
Graphic
image of a recent victim of extra-judicial execution
Photo of the
bloodied body of Marilou Sanchez shows her hands tied to a post
before being shot by men believed to be Philippine Army soldiers
last April 22, around 2:30 a.m. inside a house in Barangay Magsikap,
General Nakar, Quezon. Sanchez’s brother, Virgilio Rubio, was also
shot dead. The incident was cited in a report by the Asian Human
Rights Commission (AHRC).
Photo
courtesy of Karapatan |
Being toothless and seemingly beholden
to the President, the two-week-old Melo Commission will likely be on
its death throes even before it could seriously buckle down to work.
Recent events show why.
On Aug. 31, Arroyo beat the gun on the
commission which she created herself by exonerating the Armed Forces of
the Philippines (AFP) from responsibility in the extra-judicial
killings of political activists the probe body was tasked to
investigate. The president’s preemptive move was made on the very day
the commission began its work. As if on cue, top generals of the AFP
and Philippine National Police (PNP) came up with statements again
pinning the blame on the guerrilla New People’s Army (NPA) for the
summary executions.
Reacting to international pressures,
Arroyo formed the commission Aug. 21 to probe into the killings which
since 2001 have claimed 744 civilian lives not to mention the enforced
disappearances of 181 others. The investigation would cover media
killings which, under Arroyo, have also made the Philippines the most
dangerous country for reporters, after Iraq. Reports by Amnesty
International (London and USA) and other international organizations
pointed to the possible links of Arroyo’s security forces to the
political killings. The Commission on Human Rights (CHR), an
independent constitutional body, tried to follow up leads about the
government forces’ involvement until its work was deemed redundant or
rendered worthless with the formation of the Melo probe body.
Earlier, former Supreme Court Justice
Jose Melo, whom Arroyo handpicked to head the commission, stressed that
he would leave no stones unturned in carrying out the body’s task even
if it would mean calling the President for investigation.
Administrative Order 157, which created the commission, however
authorizes it only to summon witnesses, to deputize the military,
police and justice officials to help in its probe and recommend
judicial remedies. Then on Aug. 31, Melo contradicted himself by
clarifying that his group is not concerned with identifying the
perpetrators of the summary executions but only to find the cause
behind the atrocities.
“We are not so much concerned about
that (identifying) the culprits in the killings,” Melo told reporters.
“We are more concerned why this is happening, what is the cause of all
these things.” Tough assertions turned out to be feeble and the chief
commissioner appeared yielding to the wishes of the appointing power.
Whitewashing
Ignoring widespread perceptions about a
police whitewashing of the cases, Melo called the discredited PNP’s
Task Force Usig “credible enough.” Undermining the commission’s own
investigative powers what with two justice officials sitting as
members, the former SC justice said he would rely on the task force “to
investigate who the particular culprits are responsible for the
killings.” He thus only bolstered the precipitate claims of Deputy
Director General Avelino Razon Jr., chief of the police task force,
that most of the killings were the handiwork of the leftists.
In a separate move to buttress military
claims that the extra-judicial killings are part of an ongoing leftist
purge, the AFP chief, Gen. Hermogenes Esperon, Jr., threatened to file
murder cases against party-list Rep. Satur Ocampo and two leaders of
the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP), Jose Maria
Sison and Luis Jalandoni. Esperon linked them to the alleged bloody
purge of hundreds of leftists during the 1980s. The three had earlier
denied the charges as ridiculous, with Sison and Jalandoni themselves
known to be already on forced exile at the time the internal purge
reportedly happened.
Arroyo also said she is certain there
is no military involvement in the extra-judicial killings. Instead, she
blamed the left and her political opponents for plotting to link the
AFP to the cases in a desperate step to destabilize the republic and
unseat her from the presidency.
All these tend to
bolster accusations that the Melo Commission is just a hoax and its
creation only designed to defuse the mounting outrage over the
killings. At the very least, they show a powerful but unseen hand out
to make the task of the body superficial and keep its hands off the
military and other security forces – the alleged
culprits in the serial killings.
Aside from the
commission’s proven close links with the President, two of its members
– Chief State Prosecutor Jovencio Zuńo and Director Nestor Mantaring of
the National Bureau of Investigation come from the Department of
Justice (DoJ) which is the President’s legal arm in her two-pronged “total
war” against the left. As part of the Inter-Agency Legal
Action Group (IALAG), the DoJ was instrumental in the filing of
rebellion charges against six progressive congressmen. DoJ Secretary
Raul Gonzales has likewise prejudged the extra-judicial killings as a
“necessary collateral damage” in government’s anti-insurgency
campaign.
With the Melo
Commission just a phony, the President exonerating the AFP from any
involvement in the extra-judicial killings and the CHR in limbo with
regards its own investigation, whom will the families of the victims of
political murders turn to for justice? Congress itself has been made
powerless in probing into the killings with
Arroyo invoking the
executive department’s and the AFP generals’ “prerogative” not to
appear before the legislature’s investigative hearings. With no
credible witnesses and rights groups participating in its probe,
concerned groups are pushing for the Melo Commission to just as well
fold up before it can even warm its seat. Bulatlat
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