The Melo Commission Report

After intense public pressure, the Arroyo administration released on Thursday the report of the Melo Commission, which was created to investigate the killings of political activists and journalists in the Philippines. In a nutshell, the report assigns accountability to state security forces for these atrocities.

Davao Today, which sourced the document from the Office of the Press Secretary, is publishing the report in full, but divided it by section and subsection for easy reading and navigation.

Important note: The sectioning and pagination of the report as published here is different from the actual document. The modification was done merely for ease of navigation in this site.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

I: INTRODUCTION

1. Factual Backdrop

2. Procedure

II: UNDISPUTED FACTS

III: PRESENTATION OF WITNESSES/RESOURCE PERSONS

1. Task Force Usig; PNP Deputy Director Gen. Avelino I. Razon, Jr.

2. AFP Chief of Staff Gen. Hermogenes Esperon

2a. AFP investigation of Palparan

3. Maj. Gen. Jovito S. Palparan

3a. Gen. Palparan�s Statements implicating specific Party List Organizations

3b. Gen. Palparan�s view on the repeal of the Anti-Subversion Act

3c. Gen. Palparan’s Internal Territorial Defense System

3d. Collateral Damage; Civilians and Local Officials; Vigilante Killings

3e. On the killings of Mr. Eddie Gumanoy and Ms. Eden Marcellana

3f. Command Responsibility and CPP-NPA Purge Theory

4. Information from the Commission on Human Rights

5. Task Force Mapalad: farmers beneficiaries in Negros Occidental

6. Probe in Davao City

7. Presentation of Media groups

8. Presentation of United Church of Christ of the Philippines and the National Council of Churches of the Philippines.

IV: CASE STUDIES

1. Profile of Victims

2. Methodology of Attacks

V: FINDINGS

1. Media Killings

2. Agrarian Reform Related Killings

3. Activist Killings

4. There is some circumstantial evidence to support the proposition that some elements within or connected to the military are responsible for the killings

4a. Motive

4b. Capacity and Opportunity

4c. Reaction

4d. General Palparan

4e. General Palparan and perhaps some of his superior officers, may be held responsible for failing to prevent, punish or condemn the killings under the principle of command responsibility

5. Command Responsibility defined

6. Command Responsibility as Binding Customary International Law

7. International and State Responsibility

8. Responsibility for killings is limited to individual officers and requires further proof of a wrongful act or omission

VI: RECOMMENDATIONS

1. Political Will; Investigation

2. Prosecution; Protection of Witnesses; Special law for strict chain-of-command responsibility

3. Enhancement of investigative capabilities of the PNP and NBI

VII: CONCLUSION

[tags]davao today, human rights, extrajudicial killings, melo commission, philippines, philippine military, new people’s army, communism, gloria macapagal-arroyo[/tags]