US CONGRESS HAILED FOR MAKING HUMAN RIGHTS
IMPROVEMENT AS CONDITION FOR MILITARY AID

Senate Minority Leader Aquilino "Nene" Q. Pimentel, Jr. (PDP-Laban) today hailed the stand taken by the United States Congress to make part of American military aid to the Philippines contingent on the improvement of the human rights situation in the country.

Pimentel said such condition imposed on the release of the military assistance should serve as a warning to the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) to put a stop to extra-judicial killings and other human rights violations.

Of the $30 million military that the US Congress is committed to extend to the Philippines, $2 million will be conditional on the outcome of the government's efforts to stop and solve extra-judicial killings of political activists, which some military officials admit, are part of the AFP's counter-insurgency operations.

Pimentel said the move of the US Congress to start imposing such condition for the grant of aid is a big slap on the AFP although he does not think that this will result in extra-judicial killings being totally eliminated.

"But it might minimize the tendency to use violence against those who disagree with the policies of the government," he said.

Pimentel said what can put an end to the extra-judicial killings is for President Arroyo, as commander-in-chief, to tell AFP generals "enough is enough."

"But as we have said time and again, she isn't capable of doing so because some influential generals have her in their pockets."

He said as long as the President coddles some generals who did her favors, especially in the 2004 Presidential Election, it is difficult to see how she can put an end to the extra-judicial killings. Obviously, he said Mrs. Arroyo is afraid of incurring the ire of the generals, some of whom had a hand in these killings.

"The way it looks now, she is more and more trapped in the hands of some of the generals and is no longer at liberty to order them as she should, being the Commander-in-Chief of the armed forces. Unless she demonstrates by acts and deeds that it is she who is in command of the generals and not the other way around, we will have more of the said misgovernance that has characterized her illegitimate administration since its inception," Pimentel said.