Manila • The Philippine government yesterday rejected what it called “blanket accusations” by Amnesty International over the spate of unsolved political killings in the country.

An Amnesty report released on Tuesday said Manila had “failed to protect individuals and their human rights.” It cited the murder of 114 left-wing political and human rights activists, trade union leaders, lawyers, journalists, religious leaders and judges over the past five years.

The rights group said it was concerned that President Gloria Arroyo’s recent declaration of “all-out war” on communist rebels after failed peace talks paves the way for further extrajudicial killings.

“We acknowledge the concerns of the Amnesty International but its blanket accusations against the whole administration are not fair,” Arroyo spokesman Ignacio Bunye said in a statement.

He said the government “does not tolerate, and is not taking this problem lightly, as what the report is trying to project.”

The military and the police have accused some of the victims of providing material support to communist New People’s Army (NPA) guerrillas.

Bunye said Arroyo has “openly denounced these killings, pressured our law enforcement agencies through her 10-week deadline” to solve the killings and “expressed her intention to create a new special probe team for this purpose.”

The presidential spokesman said “this task cannot be addressed overnight as it requires the cooperation not only on the part of the law enforcement authorities and the military, but also among the families of the victims and other sectors concerned.”