Human Rights Watch (HRW), an international watchdog opposed to extrajudicial killings, has criticized President Arroyo for not acting firmly on the murders of hundreds of people in Davao City and elsewhere.

HRW executive director Kenneth Roth said his group conducted an in-depth study on the daylight murders in Davao City and uncovered the indispensable role of local officials in the wanton killings since 1998.

In its 103-page report, "You Can Die Any Time: Death Squad Killings in Mindanao," HRW said the involvement of police and local government officials in targeted killings of citizens described as drug dealers, petty criminals, released prisoners, vagrants, street children, and others, was detailed by interviewees, including those who continue to be members of the Davao Death Squad (DDS).

Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte has taken a tough line on criminals and Arroyo even named him consultant on peace and order in 2003, when 98 people were murdered in his city by the DDS.

Instead of reducing crime in Davao City, police said the rate has, in fact, worsened, with the rate rising by 219 percent in the past decade. Extrajudicial killings do not reduce crime incidence.

Arroyo and the Commission on Human Rights (CHR) have failed to investigate the killings thoroughly and bring the perpetrators of these crimes to justice.

CHR has been undertaking the excavation of human remains in a remote firing range in Davao City believed to be those of victims killed by the DDS.

"The hundreds of targeted killings in Davao City in recent years are clearly not random events but the result of planned hits by a 'death squad' that involves police officers and local officials," added Roth. "Police consistently fail to bring the perpetrators to justice, while the local government cheers from the sidelines."

HRW inquired into 28 cases of targeted killings, conducted more than 50 interviews with victims' families, witnesses, lawyers, journalists, human rights advocates, and government officials in Davao City, General Santos City, and Digos City, three of the big cities in Mindanao with an alarming number of unsolved extrajudicial killings.