Results of IPU probe into RP killings to be presented in Bali

The result of the investigation to be conducted by the Inter-Parliamentary Union’s three-man fact-finding mission on the rising number of unexplained killings in the Philippines will be presented during the 116th IPU assembly in Bali, Indonesia this month, a senior Philippine diplomat said yesterday.

The IPU team will arrive in Manila on Thursday and will leave the country on Sunday.

The diplomat, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the IPU fact-finding mission will be composed of Sen. Rosario Green of Mexico, Sen. Sharon Carstairs of Canada and Ingeborg Schwarz, the committee secretary.

Carstairs is vice president of the IPU’s committee on human rights of parliamentarians, which is headed by Sen. Franklin Drilon. The Geneva-based IPU counts 143 national parliaments and seven regional parliamentary assemblies.

The IPU team is scheduled to meet with Bayan Muna Rep. Satur Ocampo and Anakpawis Rep. Crispin Beltran on April 18.

While in the country, the IPU leaders will meet Speaker Jose de Venecia and Rep. Bienvenido Abante Jr., human rights committee chairman; Justice Secretary Raul Gonzalez; Defense Secretary Hermogenes Ebdane Jr.; Interior Secretary Ronaldo Puno; National Security Adviser Norberto Gonzales; Philippine National Police Director General Oscar Calderon; Armed Forces chief General Hermogenes Ebdane Jr.; Commission on Elections chairman Benjamin Abalos; and Commission on Human Rights chair Purificacion Quisumbing.

A meeting with the police and the military will take place before the IPU team’s meetings with Ocampo and Beltran.

Sources said that the human rights situation in the Philippines and the fact-finding mission in the country are included in the seven-item agenda for the IPU assembly in Bali.

"Human rights is one of the issues that will be raised in the meeting since it is included in the seven-item agenda in Bali. They will also meet Representatives Ocampo and Beltran after a meeting with police and military officials," the diplomat said. "They will prepare a report that will be submitted to the IPU assembly the following week."

Philippine government officials met with United Nations Special Rapporteur Philip Alston last February when he led a fact-finding mission that conducted an investigation on the unexplained killings in the country.

The IPU is the international organizations of parliaments of sovereign states. The union is the focal point of world-wide parliamentary dialogue and works for peace and cooperation among peoples and for the establishment of representative democracy. Over 140 national parliaments, including the Philippines are currently members of the IPU.

Alston, a UN expert on extrajudicial executions, stated in his initial findings that "the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) remains in a state of denial of its need to respond effectively and authentically to the significant number of killings which have been convincingly attributed to them."

The IPU officials will visit Beltran, who is temporarily detained at the Philippine Heart Center.