MANILA, May 8, 2009-The Arroyo administration's strategy to end political killings will not work, a Catholic bishop said.
Manila Auxiliary Bishop Broderick Pabillo said the P25 million fund to reward informants who could help solve political killings will never have much impact.
Pabillo, who heads the National Secretariat for Social Action- Justice and Peace of the Catholic Bishops' Conference of the Philippines (CBCP), said a cash reward is not an effective way to reduce or cut crimes.
"The government has got the wrong strategy. Political will and not money is more needed to solve the wave of political killings in the country," he said.
The bishop said allocating special fund for such campaign is irrelevant because the duty, primarily, falls on the Philippine National Police (PNP).
"The public is paying for their salaries and it's their obligation to investigate, make arrests and bring to court those who are behind these extrajudicial killings," he said.
President Arroyo announced on Tuesday the establishment of the hefty fund to pay informants in an attempt to curb political killings that have victimized activists, rights lawyers and government officials.
The fund would go to those "who provide information that foils political assassination attempts or leads to their solution, especially the identification of their masterminds," she said.
Arroyo has been criticized for the series of killings, for which she has been blamed for either condoning the attack or not doing enough to stop them. (Roy Lagarde)