The European Union on Thursday pledged 61 million euros (90.22 million dollars) in aid to the Philippines, the economic planning department said.

Some 36 million euros will be used to deliver basic social services with a priority on health, the authority said in a statement.

A further 12 million euros will be used to support efforts to bring peace to Mindanao island, which has been plagued by a decades-old Muslim separatist rebellion, with the remainder earmarked for trade development.

The European Union has poured about one billion euros in aid into the Philippines since 1976, the Manila government agency said.

The Arroyo government’s intensified attacks on the people, marked by the cold-blooded murder of unarmed political activists, church people, journalists, lawyers and judges, teachers and human rights defenders continue to multiply with impunity.  These are motivated by Arroyo’s drive for political survival and are in line with the US government’s “war on terror” and the economic interest of multinational corporations in the Philippines. This explains why the Arroyo government has not lifted a finger to render justice to the victims of human rights violations, and to address the violations of the people’s social, economic, cultural rights, as well as the violations of the Filipino people’s sovereignty and right to self-determination.  Taking a cue from the US-led global war on terror and emboldened and encouraged by the US government, the Arroyo government estimates it can also justify, gloss over or cover up, in the name of counter-terrorism,  violations of human rights, international humanitarian law,  and international law.

Well-documented cases of human rights violations have already been brought to the attention of the United Nations through its offices in New York and Geneva.  A number of international entities have also conducted fact-finding missions and have issued reports, recommendations and condemnations of the regime’s lack of resolute action to stop the killings.  Among these international groups are the Amnesty International, International Parliamentarians’ Union, Asian Human Rights Commission, the International Labor Solidarity Mission, the International Peasants Fact Finding Mission, the Hong Kong Fact-Finding Mission to the Philippines, Reporters Sans Frontiers, a delegation of church leaders led by the World Council of Churches and the Christian Conference of Asia, Lawyers without Borders and Lawyers for Lawyers from the Netherlands, International Association of Democratic Lawyers, International Association of People’s Lawyers, and four women lawyers from the United States.

Various church organizations like the World Council of Churches, Christian Conference of Asia, World Alliance of Reformed Churches, World Methodist Council, Episcopal Church of the USA, Uniting Church of Australia,  United Church of Canada, United Methodist Church of the USA, United Evangelical Mission of Germany and the National Council of Churches in Japan have likewise issued their statements and resolutions calling on the Manila government to bring an end to the killings.  Notably, a number of Members of Parliament from Europe and a number of officials from other countries have also expressed their concerns over the deteriorating human rights situation in the Philippines. The list continues to lengthen.

In response to this growing international pressure, Macapagal-Arroyo belatedly saw the need to take a pro-forma official action by creating the Melo Commission in September 2006 to look into the killings.  This step was clearly intended to deflect and diffuse the barrage of criticisms against her government. But before this Commission could start its investigation, Mrs. Arroyo issued a blanket statement absolving her military and police forces of any wrongdoing, despite testimonies from survivors and witnesses to the contrary.   As expected, the Melo Commission, in the report it had  recently submitted to President Arroyo, cleared her and the AFP top brass of any responsibility, instead blaming the killings on Gen. Palparan and a “small group” of rogue military and police elements, as well as gangsters and even  the New People’s Army.  Curiously, Malacanang (The Philippine Islands' "White House" equivalent) adamantly refused to release  the Melo Commission report to the public until it had to give in to both international and local pressure to do so.

Nearly simultaneous with the submission and eventual release of the Melo Commission report was the statement of Philip Alston, the UN Special Rapporteur on Extra-judicial killings, on his findings after a 10-day visit.  Mr. Alston met with the representatives of the government, including top Cabinet, military and police officials, human rights groups and relatives of victims of extra-judicial killings. In his press statement, Mr. Alston rejected the various government, military and police “theories” that absolved them from any responsibility in the killings.  While he said it was clear to him that the killings are not state policy and are not centrally directed, Alston nonetheless attributed  some of the killings to the government’s counter-insurgency program and indicated he would examine this in greater detail in his final report. Despite the findings of Mr. Alston and the Melo Commission attributing political killings to the AFP, Arroyo reiterated her earlier statement absolving the military of the crimes and declaring that “99.9% of the AFP is good”.

The struggle to uphold and defend human rights and the peoples’ rights continues.  The Filipino people have shown that they cannot be cowed by terror nor duped by the Arroyo regime. They persist in seeking and finding avenues to make this despicable situation known throughout the world, to seek justice, and gather the broadest support for their just and legitimate struggle for national self-determination and social emancipation. 

As long as the current prez supports the U. S. government the dollars will flow in and nothing will be done by the Senate and Congress in america to stop the police who are preying upon the tourists and any white man in their country (The beautiful Philippine Islands).

We do not agree with everything any source has to say. you can use a discerning eye to read more here,

http://www.philippinetribunal.org/dmdocuments/verdict_ppt2_philippines.pdf

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The War On Terror In The Philippine Islands

The ASG was founded by remnants of the Islamist mujahadeen, bankrolled and manipulated by the CIA, the Pakistani ISI, and elements of Saudi Arabia’s wealthy elite during the jihad against the Soviet Union in the 1980s. Philippine Sen. Aquilino Pimentel, Jr. called Abu Sayyaf a “CIA monster.”[144] According to John Cooley, author of Unholy Wars, the Abu Sayyaf was the last of the seven Afghan guerrilla groups to be organized late in the war in Afghanistan in 1986 or three years before the Soviets withdrew.

           The fact is that since the early 1990s, the group which by then had gone back to Mindanao, has been involved chiefly in criminal operations while maintaining liaisons with both military and local officials. This is partly the reason why the group refuses to die. Just as the U.S. has inflated the al-Qaeda legend, the U.S. and Philippine officials are playing up the Abu Sayyaf "monster" and its alleged connection to al-Qaeda to justify a bigger U.S. military assistance program and bigger U.S. operations in the Asia Pacific region.

As a kidnap-for-ransom group, the Abu Sayyaf has been covertly supported by some Philippine military and police officers since the 1990s. Senator Pimentel said that during the Ramos administration (1992-1998), these officers did not only “handle” but also coddled, trained, protected them, passed on military equipment and funds from the CIA and its support network.[146]

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