In June, the United Church of Christ in the Philippines launched a legal suit for $124,000 in damages against the former President of the Philippines, Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo over murders of church members by the security forces that took place under her administration. As President, Ms Macapagal-Arroyo was the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of the Philippines and ultimately responsible for the actions of the security forces.

The Philippines National Police unit tasked with investigating extrajudicial killings since 2001, Task Force Usig, recorded only 15 extrajudicial killings in the period July 2010 to May 2011. Human rights groups claim there have been up to 48. Task Force Usig has laid charges in eight of the cases.

Task Force Usig has investigated more than 200 cases since it was formed, 102 of which have been pursued through the justice system and four of which have resulted in convictions.

In December 2010, the Secretary for Justice, Leila de Lima, created a task force she says has a broader mandate than Task Force Usig. De Lima directed the new task force to review all reported and unsolved cases of extrajudicial killings and enforced disappearances by the security forces, with the intention of speeding up resolution of cases with sufficient evidence and reinvestigating cases in which the trail of evidence has gone cold. The Task Force has now reviewed 187 cases of extrajudicial killing. It has filed 63 cases with the courts and six cases are undergoing preliminary investigation.

Amnesty International has released an assessment paper of the first year of the new administration in the Philippines. Amnesty International has pointed out that during the election campaign and in his first year as president, President Aquino repeatedly vowed that he would disarm and disband all private armed groups in the country. However, he has failed to take even preliminary steps to achieve this. As of November 2010, the President was still “assessing” the confidential report of the Commission Against Private Armies. Moreover, the mandate of this commission, which was created under President Arroyo, was not extended under the new Aquino administration.