By Fidel V. Agcaoili
Chairman, NDFP Human Rights Committee
The appointment yesterday of Major General Jovito Palparan as deputy national security adviser is a clear proof that the extrajudicial killings and abduction of legal activists are state policy under the Arroyo regime. Thus, these are committed with impunity.
Even before the said appointment, the rapid promotions in military rank that Palparan enjoyed previously and the special praise for him in Gloria Macapagal Arroyos 2006 State of the Nation Address proved that he was carrying out state policy.
Arroyo has held him in high regard despite the protests of surviving victims and families, churches and legal political parties and mass organizations of the victims of extrajudicial killings and abductions in the areas to which Palparan had been assigned like Mindoro, Eastern Visayas and Central Luzon.
Arroyo has ignored the outrage of the people in the Philippines and abroad. She has not heeded the complaints over the gross human rights violations expressed by several governments, Amnesty International and other human rights organizations, the World Council of Churches and other religious institutions, and professional organizations of lawyers, journalists and other people.
The new appointment of Palparan signifies that extrajudicial killings and abductions carried out with impunity will further escalate throughout the country, and that the Melo Commission is conclusively Arroyos device for whitewashing the crimes of butchers like Palparan and for deceiving the people.
