An inquiry created by the Philippine government has found that soldiers were responsible for the majority of murders of hundreds of leftwing activists, a local newspaper reported on Tuesday.
The Philippine Daily Inquirer quoted the head of the inquiry, retired supreme court justice Jose Melo, as saying military commanders should be held responsible for the shootings in their areas of duty.
"Some of the killings were attributed to politicians, some to the security guards of landlords but (the) majority of the killings pointed to these military elements," Melo was quoted as saying in a telephone interview.
"But we don't want to tag the whole military establishment, only elements of the military who were allowed to do their thing without supervision from higher officers."
President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo created the Melo Commission last year after rights groups, including Amnesty International, said the shootings could be linked to some members of the security forces.
Arroyo has denied any official involvement in the killings. Her press secretary said she had not yet seen the inquiry's report.
The military and government has previously blamed communist rebels for the recent surge in killings, saying the New People's Army (NPA) was purging its ranks as it did in the 1980s.
Last year, one of the country's top generals, Major-General Jovito Palparan, said individual soldiers might have been involved in some of the killings but the military did not sanction the murders.
Chief state prosecutor Jovencito Zuno, one of the four members of the Melo Commission, declined to comment on its recommendations.
"We will be submitting our formal report on Thursday. We have yet to sign it and we cannot give any statement," Zuno said in an interview.
Local human rights group Karapatan has said more than 700 leftists, activists, farmers, community organisers and journalists have been killed since Arroyo came to power in 2001.
The shootings - often carried out in daylight by masked gunmen on motorbikes - have continued into 2007. Many of the victims were members of organisations the military views as fronts for the NPA.
Chief Presidential Legal Counsel Sergio Apostol told reporters on Sunday the Melo Commission's recommendation would help the armed forces conduct its own probe into the involvement of the military in the killings.
