MANILA, Philippines -- Philip Alston, the United Nations rapporteur, not the Armed Forces of the Philippines, is in denial over the wave of extrajudicial killings in the country, Armed Forces Chief Hermogenes Esperon Jr. said Thursday.

Yet, at the same time, Esperon also ordered government forces not to attack legal leftist organizations that the government has tagged as fronts of the communist rebel movement.

Esperon?s statement came a day after Alston made public the initial results of his 10-day investigation into the killings, which indicated a ?significant number? were ?convincingly attributed? to the military.

"I believe Mr Alston might be in a state of denial himself, he probably refuses to believe that the Communist Party of the Philippines and the New People's Army could perpetrate such killings," Esperon told a news conference in Camp Aguinaldo.

"I believe he was not that enthusiastic when I presented to him the 1,227 cases of [communist rebel] purging," Esperon added.

Esperon issued the order to lay off leftist groups after showing undated video footage of Jose Ma. Sison in which the CPP founder identified Bagong Alyansang Makabayan, Kilusang Mayo Uno, Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas, League of Filipino Students, Alliance of Concerned Teachers and Kadena as ?legal democratic front.?

"I would like to give a caveat, a warning to soldiers that legal organizations are mentioned [in the video], but we are going after the underground movement," he said.

However, Esperon also dared the legal groups "to denounce the violence of the NPA, denounce the cruelty in the countryside."

Esperon refused to discuss when the tape was taken or how it came into the military's possession. He played only a portion of the Sison interview, which he said ran for up to 17 minutes.

"We are not telling you that this is gospel truth, we are just telling you that the CD is real," he said.

Gery Albert Corpuz, spokesman of the militant fisherfolk group Pamalakaya, claimed he has seen the Sison tape Esperon played, when it was aired on television in 1987.

"It [video] was not kept from the public and was shown in gatherings and forums. How come Esperon is misinterpreting it as something?" Corpuz said in a text message.

Corpuz said the full interview showed Sison expressing his views after the first People Power uprising that toppled the Marcos dictatorship.

Esperon also presented two civilians who were mistakenly listed by Karapatan as victims of extra-judicial killings Edwin Mascarinas and Renato Bugtong.

"I am happy to see you alive," the military chief told the two.

"I do not know how familiar he [Alston] is with other insurgencies, but, as he admits, he has been here for the first time and he has stayed here for ten days. We have been fighting this insurgency for 39 years, and I have been fighting it for the last 33 years, I will not even claim expertise on the matter," he said.

Justice Secretary Raul Gonzalez said he was doubtful whether the report of Philip Alston, United Nations special rapporteur, would have any bearing.

"I don't think his report will reach the UN General Assembly," Gonzalez said, adding that Alston is merely a messenger of the UN and had no right to speak for the whole UN body.

Gonzalez said there were thousands of human rights violations all over the world and every report had to pass before the UN Commission on Human Rights.

"With the too many human rights violations all over the world, I don't think his report will be acted upon by the body," Gonzalez said.

Gonzalez also said that retired chief justice Hilario Davide Jr. was in the UN to defend the government against Alston report.

Meanwhile, House Minority Floor Leader Francis Escudero said instead of denying its involvement in the killings, the military should start working to solve them.

"The AFP [Armed Forces of the Philippines] should unmask the killers in its midst, put them under military arrest, court martial them and, if guilty, lock them up,? Escudero said in a statement.

He noted that while the military denied its involvement, only few suspects have been arrested so far by the authorities.

Bayan Muna Representative Satur Ocampo said President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo should immediately issue an ?unconditional order? for the military to cease and desist from undertaking or tolerating extrajudicial killings.

Ocampo said the ?next logical step was to order the military to put a stop to this madness."

He said it was also the best time for Arroyo to recall her government's counter-insurgency program dubbed as ?Oplan Bantay Laya [Oplan Freedom Watch],? which he claimed had led to the rash of extrajudicial killings.

But pro-Arroyo congressmen Antonio Cuenco and Benasing Macarambon defended the government.

In a joint statement, Cuenco and Macarambon branded Alston's report as ?incomplete, unfair, and premature.

They said the UN official could not make a sweeping indictment of the armed forces in just 10 days of investigation and without getting the sides of other sectors involved in the resolution of the problem.

Cuenco said Alston should have included in his investigation all sectors concerned like the AFP, the Philippine National Task Force Usig, the Department of Justice, Malacañang officials and families of the victims.

?It's so unfortunate that what Alston saw was only the surface and not the details of the extrajudicial killings,? Cuenco said.

?His investigation is far from thorough. He cannot just pin the blame on the military after 10 days of investigation,? he added.

Macarambon said it was unfair to just limit the findings on the basis of the testimonies of militant groups, who he said have always been biased against the military.

Originally posted at 12:12 pm