Anti-insurgency policy reviewed amid killings

The wave of extrajudicial killings has prompted the government to reassess its anti-insurgency policy to make it responsive to human rights issues, a senior Malacañang official said Friday. Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita said the Armed Forces of the Philippines and the Department of National Defense were tasked to detect loopholes that might be used an excuse to commit human rights violations. Ermita said the military and police had been ordered to ensure that no human rights violations would be committed in its ongoing anti-insurgency campaign. He clarified that neither the order to avoid human rights violations nor the on going review of the insurgency campaign plan should be construed as an admission that some of the killings were the result of the anti-insurgency push. "Definitely not. We are just saying that these things are happening in the context of the insurgency problem that the Philippine government has been faced with for 39 years…and we hope to be able to cope with the problem and we will try to see how we are doing everything," Ermita said. According to Ermita, both the order and the review are meant to prevent possible human rights violation, which the enemies of the government could only use in its black propaganda drive against the administration. He said the government had been on the losing end of the communist propaganda drive, noting that the insurgents are quick to blame military and police forces for the death of leftist activists. Ermita said the communist propaganda tarnishes the country’s image abroad and it is time for the government to act. "Therefore we will have to emphasize to our forces engaged in counter insurgency to ensure that human rights violations are avoided, to ensure that there will be no other information that can be or to be a source for charges against military and police just in the name of counter insurgency," he said. - GMANews.TV