MANILA, Philippines—Close to two years after UN rapporteur Philip Alston recommended the abolition of an executive body accused of persecuting left-leaning lawmakers and groups, the government finally decided to take up the call.

Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita Friday said President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo signed Executive Order No. 808 on May 15 revoking EO 493 that created the Inter-Agency Legal Action Group (IALAG) to coordinate national security cases.

The IALAG has already “accomplished its mandate,” the President said in her order. “Executive officials and employees can no longer make use of Executive Order No. 493 in the investigation, prosecution and monitoring of offenses relating to national security.”

An advisory body, IALAG was created in 2006 and placed under the National Intelligence Coordinating Agency.

Ermita said the EO was in response to Alston’s recommendation. Party-list lawmakers and militant groups have been calling on the government to heed the recommendation since 2007.

“This will show that we are responsive to Alston’s recommendations because he thinks IALAG is an instrument for the violation of the human rights of insurgents as well as those identified with the insurgents like militant groups,” Ermita said.