Melo commission tags AFP behind most killings

The military has committed most of the killings in recent months of community activists, labor leaders and journalists, a member of a committee investigating the slayings said Saturday. Butuan Bishop Juan de Dios Pueblos, a member of the five-man Melo Commission created by President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo to probe the spate of extra judicial killings in the country made the disclosure as he announced that the body has wrap up its investigations. While declining to give details of their reports which they have already submitted to the President, Pueblos confirmed that majority of the killings were committed or perpetrated by the military. “We have identified really that there are killings really perpetuated by the military," Pueblos said. He added that their cross examination of retired Army Gen. Jovito Palparan has been irritating because of some “irresponsible comments" the controversial general made during the investigation. The bishop said Palparan dismissed the figures and data as fabrication because it was provided by a left-leaning human rights advocacy group Karapatan. Pueblos said the commission is recommending to make military officers culpable for murders carried out by their soldiers. Aside from the military, Pueblos said the killings committed particularly among the media and the politicians have been committed by “hooded men in motorbikes." He also noted that they were also able to establish that some of the political killings were carried out by goons of some politicians while other cases were triggered by vendetta. There are also some killings perpetrated by the leftists, Pueblos said. “And so we reached that certain point of giving that kind of principle that the end does not justify the means," said the bishop. Meantime, Pueblos said the committee is hopeful that Mrs Arroyo would make decisive steps to stop the killings. “We are actually encouraging the President to make a statement to stop killings in whatever form. Not just to the militants and media people but all killings," he said. International human rights groups, including London-based Amnesty International, have expressed concern over the rising number of political killings in the Philippines, where hundreds of left-wing activists have been killed in recent years with only a handful of cases being solved. Human rights group Karapatan claimed that it has recorded 185 killings in 2006 alone, the highest number since the fall of former dictator Ferdinand Marcos in 1986. The President created the Melo Commission in order to determine who the perpetrators of the crimes are. Besides Pueblos other members of the Melo Commission include former Supreme Court Associate Justice Jose Melo, the chairman; and National Bureau of Investigation Director Nestor Mantaring and Chief State Prosecutor Jovencito Zuño from the government and UP Regent Nelia Teodoro-Gonzales from the private sector. - GMANews.TV