President may be liable -- Melo Report

2/24/2007 09:34:00 PM

President Macapagal-Arroyo may be held accountable under international law if the political killings remain unresolved and unabated under her watch, according to the Melo Commission. In its 86-page report, the commission led by former Supreme Court Justice Jose Melo warned that the government could not “sit idly by and refuse to act. Read more from the Philippine Daily Inquirer.

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    Democracy, according to the late Swedish Prime Minister Olof Palme, is "a question of human dignity, [a]nd human dignity is political freedom, the right to freely express opinion and the right to be allowed to criticise and form opinions."

    But exercising political freedom in the Philippines, which purports itself to be a democracy, can lead to death. Since Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo assumed the presidency of the country in 2001, more than 800 Filipinos murdered in politically-motivated, extra-judicial, targeted killings. Since the 4th quarter of July 2005, one person has been killed every two days. The victims of these brazen acts of violence were all unarmed citizens: lawyers, judges, journalists, medical practitioners, members of cause-oriented groups, priests, church-workers, human rights advocates, laborers and farmers.

    It is widely believed—and the United Nations support this belief—that state security forces are complicit in these crimes.