More than 600 political dissenters have been killed while another 400 have become victims of torture or have gone missing since the Arroyo administration implemented a counterinsurgency program in 2002, Bayan Muna Rep. Satur Ocampo said Monday.

"Since Oplan Bantay Laya's implementation last 2002 until today, 601 political dissenters have been killed, 176 have gone missing, and 245 have been victims of torture. Such has been a topic for investigation for international bodies including the United Nations (UN)," Ocampo said in the House Committee on Justice hearing on the impeachment complaint against President Arroyo.

The three bases of the impeachment complaint filed against the President include culpable violation of the constitution, crimes against humanity, and betrayal of public trust.

According to Ocampo, President Arroyo had two main offenses: encouraging her subordinates to commit human rights violations, or acts of commission; and failure to respond to the occurrence of extra-judicial killings, or acts of omission.

By approving a counterinsurgency program last 2002, Ocampo said that the President promoted the military's human rights violations against who they considered to be enemies of the state, i.e. the CPP-NPA.

Oplan Bantay Laya was established in 2002 and was meant to be carried out until 2006. However, President Arroyo ordered the implementation of Bantay Laya part 2 last May 2007, saying that their target to eradicate CPP-NPA forces has not yet been reached.

On top of all these, Ocampo said that those who should be held responsible for such violations are yet to be prosecuted, adding that President Arroyo has not responded to the increasing number of extra-judicial killings.

A former close ally of Mrs. Arroyo delivered the first salvo in Monday's impeachment hearing, accusing her of having direct knowledge of a controversial nationwide broadband deal involving Chinese company ZTE.

Testifying before the House of Representatives, congressman Jose de Venecia said Arroyo had given her approval to the deal after a secret meeting in the state-run firm's headquarters in the southern Chinese city of Shenzhen in 2006.

The ZTE scandal forms the main basis in the latest bid to impeach Arroyo over corruption. Three previous attempts have failed.

The House Justice Committee will spend most of the week hearing evidence supporting the bid before deciding whether or not to proceed and impeach the president.

Political analysts, however, say that Arroyo controls the House and that it is unlikely the impeachment bid will succeed.

De Venecia's son, Joey, lost out on the bid for the broadband contract last year and testified before a previous senate hearing alleging widespread corruption and massive overpricing of the 329-million-dollar deal.

It was his testimony, political observers say, that cost his father the speaker's chair, which he had held for more than a decade. De Venecia lost the chair in a vote earlier this year to a close Arroyo ally.

In his testimony Monday, Jose de Venecia said Arroyo's husband, Jose Miguel Arroyo, and former elections chief Benjamin Abalos brokered "backroom negotiations" that led to ZTE getting the lucrative contract, which was later cancelled by Arroyo.

He said his son was later told to back off and offered a 10-million-dollar bribe to quietly withdraw.

"Now, pray tell me, what is the president of the Philippines doing there at the ZTE headquarters? Pray tell me, what is the husband of the president doing there (in the company of those) bidding for a massive project in the Philippines?," de Venecia said, and showed a picture of the first couple during a golf trip in Shenzhen.

"Let me say to you, my colleagues in the House of Representatives, that pictures do not lie," he said in his first congressional appearance to address the issue.

"President Arroyo has to do a lot of answering," he said.

De Venecia said Arroyo had also bribed congressmen with huge amounts to kill the impeachment bid, while he and his son have been receiving death threats.

Arroyo's aides were not immediately available to react. The president meanwhile has been visiting Peru for the annual APEC summit. With Agence France-Presse