Manila  - The Philippine government is prepared to defend its human rights record, which has been tarnished by a spate of political killings, during a review by a United Nations council this month, a senior official said Tuesday.

Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita, a top advisor to President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, will lead a delegation to represent the Philippines in the first Universal Periodic Review by the UN Human Rights Council.

"We are proud of the achievements we have made in human rights," Ermita said. "Like all countries, we cannot say we have a perfect record but we have instituted programmes and policies that are making an impact and this is what the international system wants to see."

Ermita noted that since international attention was called to the growing incidents of extrajudicial killings in the Philippines in 2006, the number of political murders has declined by 83 per cent in 2007 after Arroyo ordered police to hunt down suspects and to stop the executions.

He added that the Arroyo government is not just focused on protecting and promoting the political rights of Filipinos, but also their economic and social rights.

"Human rights is much broader than just this issue," he said. "We will discuss areas as various as micro-finance projects to empower people economically, (as well as) basic services and provisions."

The first session of the Universal Periodic Review began in Geneva on April 7, with Bahrain as the first country to go through the process. The Philippines will be the 10th country on the list of 16 nations to be scrutinized in the first session.

More than 900 people have become victims of extrajudicial killings and 180 of forced disappearances in the Philippines since 2001 under the Arroyo administration, according to local human rights group Karapatan.

Most of the victims are political and leftist activists, labour leaders, human rights workers and journalists.

In 2007, only 69 extrajudicial killings were recorded, down from 209 in 2006 as foreign countries and organizations stepped up pressure on the Philippine government to stop the attacks and prosecute perpetrators.

So far this year, Karapatan has already recorded 13 cases of political killings.

Human rights and leftist groups have blamed government security forces for most of the spate of political killings, which have triggered international condemnation.

Philip Alston, a UN Special Rapporteur who visited the Philippines in February 2007 to probe the spate of extrajudicial killings, alleged that the military was deliberately targeting leftist activists for execution in the country. (dpa)