MANILA, Philippines - Philippine President Gloria Arroyo has ordered her military and national police to respond to a US State Department report alleging that they committed human rights abuses.

The order followed the release of the US State Department's 2009 Human Rights Report, which said Philippine government agencies had carried out extrajudicial killings with impunity, presidential spokesman Gary Olivar said.

"The Philippine National Police and the Armed Forces of the Philippines should submit to the president by April 1 their reports on how they will address specific allegations of abuses in the report by the US State Department," he said.

If the allegations were true, then both the police and military should explain what they were doing to solve the problem, he said.

Olivar stressed that Arroyo's government was acting to improve human rights in the Philippines, citing the establishment of human rights offices in the police and military and a swift crackdown after security personnel were linked to a bloody political killing of 57 people in November.

"Of course, we are not perfect so if there are any shortcomings and any reports of abuse, the president's order is to investigate these things," he said, adding that such incidents, if true, tarnished the country's reputation.

Human rights groups have long complained of a "culture of impunity" in the Philippines that allows powerful figures to kill or abuse political rivals, journalists, lawyers and others who get in their way.

In its annual report on human rights in 194 countries and regions, released Thursday, the State Department denounced the human rights situation in a range of countries, including North Korea, Myanmar and China in the Asia-Pacific region.

In the Philippines, the report said, there were "arbitrary, unlawful, and extrajudicial killings by elements of the security services and political killings, including killings of journalists, by a variety of actors."