Rights commission slams government

Rights panel takes government to task for lapses in handling Ampatuan Massacre, formation of probe panel pushed

Manila The Commission on Human Rights has taken the Presidential Palace to task for being "overly cautious" in the investigation of the massacre of 57 people in Maguindanao. The commission called for the creation of a panel to probe the gruesome killings.

In a statement, the independent Commission on Human Rights (CHR) said that the Thursday arrest of the alleged perpetrator, Mayor Andal Ampatuan of Datu Unsay town, "raised more questions about an overly cautious response of the Executive Department (Presidential Palace)" in getting to the botttom of the matter.

"There are many options available to the Executive," CHR chairperson Lilian De Lima said.

"The arrest as the first of many interventions had, as many perceived, come rather slowly and we hope that the focus on filing murder charges against Ampatuan Jr does not remove attention from the other accountabilities of the government which must be addressed," she said.

Andal Jr was finally arrested as the prime suspect responsible for the murders. His arrest comes days after the murders and amid growing demand by the public for immediate government action to bring the murderers to book.