Chiz Escudero

I dare the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) to accept the offer of help from the US Government to solve extrajudicial killings in the country. Such move will dispel
suspicions that the death squads that conducted the assassinations, involving
mostly leftist militants as victims, are under its employ.

US Ambassador to the Philippines Kristie Kenney made the offer at a talk with
defense reporters in Camp Aguinaldo.

The US Government is unyielding in its determination to bring erring military
personnel to justice for crimes committed against defenseless civilians, exactly
what the AFP and the Philippine National Police are being accused of.

The US military justice system is replete with examples of court-martials and
convictions of officers and soldiers who deviated from acceptable military conduct,
from Lt. William Calley, leader of a platoon that killed hundreds of old men, women,
children and babies in My Lai, Vietnam, to Sgt. Paul Cortez, member of an airborne
division, who along with four other soldiers raped and murdered a 14-year-old girl in
Iraq.

But I doubted that anything good could come out of the offer, as the AFP has
become notorious for stonewalling the issue instead of doing something about it.

I dismiss claims by the military that the extrajudicial executions were the handiwork
of leftist groups. The trouble with this line is that it assumes the victims were
agents of the military and the rebels executed them to exact retribution. The
military does not even make an attempt to supply evidence to support the
allegations.

Gen. Hermogenes Esperon Jr. called the crimes mysterious killings, not extrajudicial
executions.

It is a spin that does not give justice to the hundreds of victims.

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