MANILA.- Malacañang assured Saturday that it will follow the recommendations of the Melo Commission on extrajudicial killings.

In a statement, Press Secretary Ignacio Bunye noted that special courts to try political and media killings are already being established.

He added that the government's witness protection program is being beefed up, as the government's investigation is "going into a deeper level" and "evidence is being consolidated."

"Rest assured that these cases will be resolved under the rule of law even as government clamps down on election-related violence that has been the bane of our democratic system," he said.

"[President Arroyo] is determined to end the culture of violence with the same fervor that she has championed the culture of enterprise and productivity," he added.

The Melo Commission report was made public on Thursday a day after UN investigator Philip Alston blamed the military for many of the more than 800 political assassinations that rights groups say have taken place since President Arroyo took office in 2001.

The 86-page report contained six parts including highlights of the panel's findings and the military's and retired Major General Jovito Palparan's reactions to the report.

Activists accused Palparan of involvement in the killings of activist leaders in his areas of operation especially in Central Luzon, Eastern Visayas and Mindoro.

The report also recommended the opening of the witness protection program for the witnesses and families of the victims of extrajudicial killings.

Alston said Wednesday that the Armed Forces of the Philipines (AFP) was in "almost total denial" about the need to take action on the murders, which have tarnished Mrs. Arroyo's administration and drawn international criticism.

Alston said the government was responsible for a climate of impunity but said he did not have evidence to support allegations by the nation's leading human rights group that Mrs. Arroyo had ordered or condoned the murders.

Military forces have been battling for decades against communist insurgents who effectively control parts of this vast island nation, and say rights groups ignore the numbers of people killed by the guerrillas.

Local rights group Karapatan (Alliance for the Advancement of People's Rights) says more than 830 people have been murdered for political motives since Mrs. Arroyo came to power in 2001 -- many of them leftists, and some of them accused by the army of links to the guerrillas.