We don't countenance extrajudicial killings - Lacierda

MANILA, Philippines - Malacañang deplored yesterday as baseless the report of the New York-based Human Rights Watch (HRW) that the Aquino administration has done nothing to solve extrajudicial killings.

Presidential spokesman Edwin Lacierda said that the government had solved four of the five cases that occurred under President Aquino’s term.

“That’s wrong,” Lacierda told a news briefing, referring to the HRW report that cited the government’s “failure” to investigate and prosecute cases of unexplained killings and enforced disappearances.

“We don’t countenance extrajudicial killings. The numbers (figures, statistics) they are giving are those from the previous (administration) and are integrated and summed up to those that fell on our term,” he lamented.

Lacierda rectified misconceptions that these cases have remained unresolved, noting that four of the five unexplained killings that happened under their watch have already reached the courts. This means only one case has yet to be solved.

“And the accused in those cases included a military official, I think somewhere in Albay,” he said.

“And again, let me remind them, including the HRW, that our chairperson is a human rights victim herself,” said Lacierda, referring to Commission on Human Rights chair Etta Rosales, a human rights victim during the martial law regime of the late President Ferdinand Marcos.

“I think they don’t understand the importance this administration is giving to human rights. This is very important for the President, and this is a symbol that we respect the human rights of everybody,” he said.

In HRW’s 98-page report, entitled “No Justice Just Adds to the Pain: Killings, Disappearances, and Impunity in the Philippines,” it said the Aquino administration fell short in curbing killings and disappearances allegedly committed by the military in at least 10 cases recorded over the past year.

“The Philippine government has consistently failed in its obligations under international human rights law to hold accountable perpetrators of politically-motivated killings and enforced disappearances,” a portion of the report read.

The HRW based its report on more than 80 interviews of victims of abuses, their family members, witnesses, and police and military officials in 11 provinces, including a former soldier who said military commanders ordered him to kill leftist activists and intimidate witnesses.

HRW cited the killings of Fernando Baldomero, Pascual Guevarra, Reynaldo Labrador, Rene Quirante, Ireneo Rodriguez, Rudy and Rudyric Dejos; and the disappearances of Agustito Ladera, Renato Deliguer and Alfredo Bucal.

HRW said Aquino has yet to fulfill his campaign pledge to end serious violations of human rights in the country by directing the police and the National Bureau of Investigation to vigorously pursue crimes allegedly committed by the military or themselves be subject to disciplinary measures.

Only seven unexplained killing cases have been successfully prosecuted in the past decade, resulting in the conviction of 12 defendants, none since Aquino took office, it stressed.

No senior military officers have been convicted either for direct involvement in these violations or as a matter of command responsibility.

Justice Secretary Leila de Lima described as a “misstatement” the allegation of HRW that the government did not investigate and prosecute suspects in unexplained killings and enforced disappearances during Aquino’s first year in office.

De Lima said statistics would show that the government task forces like Task Force Usig, Task Force 211, and the DOJ Special Task Force have been doing their best to address incidents of unexplained killings.

“It’s a misstatement that there has been no conviction on extra-legal killings and that no one has been prosecuted – that is definitely farthest from the truth,” said De Lima in a press briefing at the Philippine National Police (PNP) headquarters at Camp Crame in Quezon City.

De Lima said there are ongoing prosecution proceedings on extra-legal killings and statistics showed that before the Aquino administration took over, there were 178 reported cases of unexplained killings.

She said that based on official records there were eight convictions, 59 ongoing trials, 64 dismissed cases, and 54 archived cases because of lack of evidence or lack of witness. – With Edu Punay