Philippines launches EU-funded program to reduce killings of activists, journalists

Philippines launches program to address killings

MANILA, Philippines — The Philippines launched a European-funded program Thursday to reduce the country’s large number of extralegal killings and disappearances of activists, journalists and union workers.

The European Union has pledged euro3.9 million ($5.36 million) for the EU-Philippines Justice Support Program to provide technical aid and training to bolster the country’s criminal justice system.

Foreign and local human rights groups have accused the military of targeting left-wing activists as part of a campaign to wipe out communist rebels who have been fighting a low-level insurgency for more than 40 years.

The Brussels-based watchdog International Federation of Journalists has listed 106 journalists who have been killed in the country since President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo took office in 2001.

EU Ambassador Alistair MacDonald said the killings and disappearances have “risked sullying the country’s reputation internationally, as well as working to diminish the voice of the Philippines in the field of human rights.”

He said a key indicator of the program’s success would be a decline in the number of killings and an increase in the number of cases brought to justice — a goal which the Philippines accepted when it signed the agreement to create the program.

The 18-month program will be led by Metlev Mehlis, a senior prosecutor from Germany who earlier served as U.N. special investigator on the tribunal investigating the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafiq Hariri.

Mehlis said his team will provide training and assistance to investigative agencies like the police and National Bureau of Investigation, and seek to strengthen the independent Commission on Human Rights and help the Philippines create a monitoring system for extralegal killings.

The military in the past has said some soldiers may have been involved in the killings but most were the result of internal fighting within the underground communist movement.

Local human rights group Karapatan says more than 1,000 people have been executed since 2001, most of them activists and farmers.

Philippine Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita, who also heads a presidential human rights committee, said the government has confirmed 156 killings since 2001. He said the killings have declined from 41 in 2006 — the highest level since 2001 — to seven in 2008.

Ermita said 16 people have been convicted so far in 10 cases.

“Let there be no doubt about the seriousness of the Philippine government’s resolve to address these human rights issues,” Foreign Secretary Alberto Romulo said.