The Philippine government Thursday admitted in a report some military personnel were involved in extrajudicial killings of left-leaning activists.

Presidential spokesman Ignacio Bunye distributed to the press in the Malacanang Presidential Palace the report presented by an investigation commission headed by former Supreme Court Justice Jose Melo, which said some military personnel were behind killings of left-leaning activists including union, peasant and student leaders as well as some journalists.

The report, also called Melo Commission report, was held by the government for weeks but made public a day after United Nations investigator Philip Alston blamed the military for most of some 800 political assassinations which have reportedly taken place since President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo took office in 2001.

"These killings will be resolved and the Armed Forces shall continue to be a vanguard for freedom," Arroyo said in a statement.

The 86-page, six-part report said retired Maj. Gen. Jovito Palparan was behind the killings of leftists in Central Luzon, Eastern Visayas and Mindoro, where he had served as head of local military garrisons.

But Bunye said Arroyo believed that the majority of soldiers were not involved.

"We know that most members of the Armed Forces are doing their job," he said. "But there are some bad eggs. We all recognize that we have a problem."

Winding up his 10-day investigation tour, Alston said Wednesday that the Armed Forces of the Philippines was in "almost total denial" about the need to recognize these killings.

He also appealed to Arroyo to persuade the military to face the facts that these killings did take place and help investigate into these killings.

Source: Xinhua