Petition for journalists

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Cordillera Peoples Alliance staff continue to be harassed

"At about 7:25 PM on September 19, 2006, Ms. Abigail Bengwayan, the Public Information and Human Rights officer of the Cordillera Peoples Alliance (CPA), was assaulted by an unidentified man near the hi-way in Betag, La Trinidad, Benguet on her way home." Thus begins the account of the continued harassment of CPA staff.

Death goes on

"We do not rise to stop the killings even now, they will get worse. We do not rage against the dying of the light because it is somebody else's light and not our own, we will wake up one day to hear the snuffers of light loudly knocking at our door." Conrado de Quiros reflects on Pablo Glean's murder.

Marcos and Macapagal-Arroyo compared

Arroyo is another Marcos in many respects. Conrado de Quiros explains why.

Deadly silence

ON the stand, Maj. Gen. Jovtio Palparan complains, “I just feel as if I am being extracted information on matters that are military. I invoke the right to remain silent.” The right to remain silent is a right accorded only to those who are criminally charged, and that’s something any idiot who’s ever sat more than two hours watching an action flick knows. Read more from Patricia Evangelista.

RP rights position 'emboldens' violators, say activists

FILIPINO activists attending the second session of the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) in Geneva, Switzerland accused the government of "sweeping under the rug its responsibility in the horrible number of extrajudicial executions" in the country and actually encouraging human rights violators. Read more

Gunmen in bonnets kill another activist

"Gunmen wearing bonnets, black shirts and combat boots struck amid the outcry against extrajudicial executions, killing peasant leader Christopher Lunar, police said.

"The 31-year-old Lunar, local coordinator of the party-list group Anakpawis, became the 251st fatality in attacks on leftwing militants since President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo became Chief Executive in 2001, according to an Inquirer count. Leftist groups put the number at 720, the police at over 100." Read more.

Presentation by Miriam Coronel Ferrer

Forum on Violence Against Movements, Movements Against Violence
Organized by the Institute for Popular Democracy and the University of the
Philippines College of Social Sciences Student Council
12 September 2006, 1-5 pm, UP Recto Hall


Presentation by Miriam Coronel Ferrer
Associate Professor, Department of Political Science, University of the
Philippines; Co-convener, Sulong CARHRIHL


For centuries, national security options of states straddled between two
approaches: one based on power, the other based on peace. The first
option, power, may be better said as “power over” or the principle of
domination over the groups posing a challenge to the state – its policies,
actions, and more fundamentally, its nature. “Power over,” at the minimum,
aims to neutralize, and at the maximum exterminate, eliminate, subjugate
contending forces in the name of the state and its desired attributes –
sovereignty, stability, survival. At a glance, this approach seems to be
the only logical option for a weak state, whose very weakness forces it to
make a show of being strong.

The second approach is peace – that is, to seek peace, peace as a
precondition to and/or an outcome of security. This approach is founded
on the core values of tolerance, pluralism, and dialogue, the exact
opposite of the values in the first approach: intolerance, inclusivity,
brute force and monologue. It involves state-building through much needed
reforms. Its guiding principle is “do no (more) harm” to the situation as
it is.

Collective impact measures

What we have been witnessing in the last years is an internal security
approach founded on the state’s attempt to dominate and subjugate critical
socio-political forces (first option). Its guiding principle is precisely
to “do harm”.

It incorporates the usual military operations against communist guerillas
operating in the countryside. Such an approach relies heavily on the
Philippine army whose marching orders are to clear, hold and consolidate
(the latter now entailing the participation of state welfare agencies in
what effectively is a lopsided application of a “comprehensive approach”).

Reports of de facto curfews, arbitrary searches, harassment, imposition of
the cedula, mopping up operations, notably in Nueva Ecija, but also
elsewhere reflect that the classic counter-insurgency approach of draining
the fish of its water continues. To suffocate the fish, the water is
contained, drained or rendered unable to resist military pressure.

These methods have been referred to as “collective impact measures.” As we
have seen, this type of measures intends to hurt the populace in order to
render them submissive, not really to finish them off. A local resident
who gets killed in the process is, well, seen as collateral damage to the
intent.

Collective impact measures also function as “collective punishment”.
Residents are scolded, chided, threatened for acts deemed sympathetic to
the enemy. Read the accounts of the general assemblies recently held in
Central Luzon by the military under General Jovito Palparan. Residents are
beseeched and courted, entertained with songs and sexy dancers in exchange
for their sympathies. They are urged to speak out despite the asymmetry in
the situation: unarmed, poor farmers facing fully armed lieutenants,
colonels and generals. And when they do speak out, and complain of abuses
of government soldiers, they are reprimanded, accused of already being
“influenced” if not themselves NPAs. They become the brunt of displaced
aggression, the easy target of traumatized soldiers faced with elusive
“enemies.”

The unprecedented high number of killings of political activists
associated with national democratic organizations (as well as other
left-wing groups such as the KPD) in compressed time is part of this
“collective punishment” frame. The extrajudicial killings we have seen
share the same features of rural community-based counter-guerilla warfare:
indiscriminate or dismissive of the distinction between combatants and
non-combatants, and clouded by “hate language” and demonization of the
enemy. A slight difference is that the killings are somewhat disguised,
they are not done by men in military uniform, and are individual or tandem
acts, whereas the usual counter-insurgency is marked by troops descending
in communities (although their name plates may be covered, and their truck
plates missing) who seek security and cover in numbers.

The killings’ desired impact is the same: fear, paralysis, scuttling of
the organizational network, albeit not just in the local but the national
sense. The goal is to break the political infrastructure of the movement
whose good showing in the past election (under the party list system) and
corresponding access to pork barrel funds and a public platform, were,
from the point of view of the anti-communist state, alarming. National
politics is after all the bigger pond where the fish swim. But here the
instructions are straight to the point: kill the fish.

In this power-based approach manifested in collective punitive measures,
victory is easy to measure. One is through body count: how many dead and
wounded? Another is through weapons count: how many weapons seized? And
finally, how many communities, organizations, people neutralized? (We can
discuss later how the same tendency is shown by the armed left.)

As we should all know by now, collective impact measures create more
problems due to the social tensions and resentment they generate in the
communities, and the affected public. They erode the fabric of society,
confuse its norms, polarize, and desensitize. They provide fodder to
counter-violence, and diminish faith in the system and peaceful change.
They are sure-fire formulas for greater violence. They are our own
“low-tech” version of weapons of mass destruction which nonetheless leads
to the same MAD-ness, or “mutually assured destruction.” The victory they
lay claim too is short-term, flaky, and one-sided.

Multi-Layered Contexts

Let us not lose sight of the multi-layered contexts of this intensified
state violence against a certain social force, its various apparatuses,
but ultimately, violence or assault on the citizen at large.

One context is the short term: GMA’s political survival. I will not
belabor this point since it is already fairly well-established and
well-reasoned out.

The long and short of this context is the legitimacy question raised
against the GMA administration. Here the national democratic left has
played a major role, whether in the attempts at setting off an impeachment
process (through its party list members in Congress pushing for it, not
once, but twice), or in military coup-cum-street protests that will force
GMA to step down (through its waltzing with the malcontents in the
military, in a queasy utilitarian alliance between the left and the
right). The natdem left has also put blocks (lodging cases in the Supreme
Court, protest rallies) to moves to strengthen emergency powers or
insulate the presidency from the checks powers in the hands of Congress
and the citizens.

It is to the GMA presidency’s interest to weaken the multiple machineries
of the national democratic left through both judicial (arrest warrants,
and actual arrests, e.g., of Crispin Beltran) and extra-judicial means, as
well as of all those lined up against her (why stop at one when you can
cast a wider net?). At the same time, it is to GMA’s interest to feed the
loyalty of key state players crucial to her political survival, notably,
the military (give them their war, medals, promotions, a free hand), the
police (give them their balato), the members of Congress (give them their
pork). It is in her interest to join the “coalition of the willing” and
the US-led global fight against terrorism in order to get the backing and
material support of US President Bush. In this regard, the GMA
administration actively lobbied for the inclusion of the CPP-NPA in the
list of terrorist organizations of the US and European bodies – even
though the CPP-NPA does not as a rule employ terrorist methods like
bombings.

But beyond the GMA presidency is the state of affairs of the Philippine
state – the more important, larger context. This is a question that will
transcend GMA (even if she stays up to 2010), and is related to but
distorted by the partisan peddling of charter change. I am referring to
the specter of not just a weak state but a disintegrating, failing state,
one where governance (led by whomever) increasingly becomes unstable and
short-sighted, and reforms impossible. The prospects of a failed state
result from the features of the post-Marcos state that we have inherited,
worse off in its fracturedness and the frankensteins that were born out of
the Marcos period, -- and how our political elites have selfishly played
their games in this situation. It is the bigger context where the wanton
use of state violence by both civilian and political leaders, and the
military’s privileged role in national security and national politics have
become even more ominous.

What is a failed state? Rotberg describes it as one marked by enduring
violence, though not necessarily always of high level of intensity. It is
tense, deeply conflicted, dangerous and contested bitterly by warring
factions, with varieties of civil unrest and two or more insurgencies,
different degrees of communal discontent and other forms of dissent
directed against it and at groups within it. Parts of the territory,
notably the peripheral regions, are not under its control. There is high
level of physical insecurity among citizens, thus they are armed or they
join rebel groups. The society endures a high level of criminal violence,
and delivery of socio-economic goods is limited. Its institutions are
flawed; its infrastructure, deteriorating or destroyed.

The more recent line from Palparan, said over one ANC program last week,
is almost a tacit recognition of our situation as a failing state. Because
only in such a state can his explanation for the killings make sense.
According to Palparan, the killings are perpetuated by people taking
vengeance on the NPA for the latter’s abuses. Queried if these people
include soldiers, he replied in the positive, saying such soldiers are
probably taking revenge for the death of other soldiers. If the state
were a viable state, the military with a chain of command, the President
the chief executive and implementer of the laws of the land – can this
kind of anarchy, can this lame excuse be palpable?

Anti-communism and anti-terrorism

The ideological foundation of and justification for the state’s excessive
use of violence remains, oddly anachronistic enough, anti-communism. The
language of anti-terrorism adds a new more contemporary twist, and locates
our domestic wars in the context of the post-9/11 world order.

The language of anti-communism remains effective, given a general
antipathy to communism, and an increasing alienation of the citizenry to
national politics. To those who have fallen for this anti-communist
“rhetorical hysteria” (defined by Wole Soyinka, first African to win the
Nobel prize for literature, as the one-dimensional approach to all faces
of reality, however varied or internally contradictory) , the killings are
not a case of “slaughter of innocents” given that these people are somehow
allied with the CPP-NPA. They don’t think much about the fact that
slaughter remains slaughter; that the basic principle of respect for human
life and human dignity is for everyone, including the enemy number one of
the state, and yes, including terrorists; that there are rules even in war
that must be followed, notably distinction between those who carry arms
and those who do not. Meanwhile, businessmen and professionals may be
morally aghast at the unabated killings of alleged communists, but are not
motivated enough to put pressure to stop it, until somehow, it starts
hurting their economic interests, or their immediate environment. The
middle class will continue to fight for their own means of survival
regardless of the course of Philippine politics.

However, class analysis alone cannot explain part of the lingering potency
of anti-communism. Part of the effectiveness of the language of
anti-communism and resultant alienation is also due to the CPP-NPA-NDF
themselves – their excesses (revolutionary taxation of rich and poor,
infliction of punishments) , own pandering of violence and machismo, their
inclusivity and dogmatic framing of Philippine society and politics, and
their counter-monologue to the state’s anti-communist mantra. The purges,
the CPP-NPA-NDF hopefully recognizes by now, cannot be simply forgotten
without full retribution and honest accounting before former and present
comrades and the greater public. The ghosts of murdered comrades will
haunt the party forever. And though not particularly convincing to explain
away the recent spate of political killings among those who study their
politics, and revolting for the disrespect shown the dead lying in mass
graves, the purges of the 80s and 90s will remain scraps (war material) to
poke around with, in the AFP and police forces’ psywar ops.

In all, taken in the context of an untransformed state and
reform-resistant state elites, the language of anti-communism coupled with
anti-terrorism is actually anti-left (because the communists do not alone
make up the Philippine left), and even more broadly, anti anti-status
quo. Thus while we have our differences with the communist left, and as
human rights advocates, oppose terrorist methods, we cannot tolerate the
rhetorical hysteria of anti-communism/ terrorism. We cannot be unconcerned
with the killings of branded communists/terroris ts, because the label
easily includes all of us unhappy with the status quo, and exercising our
rights to express our beliefs.

Ways Out

I have long been asking myself this rhetorical but really incisive
question: what is the central political question of today? During the
martial law regime and even during EDSA 2, the answer seemed simple
enough: Marcos, in the case of the former, and Erap, in the case of the
latter. Today, fortunately and unfortunately, we have to find the answers
beyond Garci, Gloria and the two Gonzaleses in government.

The political killings is a problem with GMA – her leadership, her policy
preferences, her questionable legitimacy based on her ascent to power
(EDSA 2 and dubious elections) – but is also a problem that transcends
her. Thus, removing GMA can be one short-term solution, but is not enough
for the long haul. And neither is the long-haul solution contingent on
removing her.

We must resolve how to deal with armed challenges faced by the state:
resolution through conquest of power by a dominant force using force, or
through sustainable, inclusive peace through peaceful means. The state has
been pursuing the former, it’s time to put more stake in the latter. But
it will only do this if we achieve critical mass in forcing the state to
take this direction.

We must work for a sustainable change founded on human rights and dignity
– or a peace process alongside pursuit of specific reforms. There are key
critical areas where state reforms are needed and where we should spread
out and simultaneously intervene: reform of our electoral institutions and
processes; reform of the security sector (cleansing and
professionalization of the military and police); enhancing governance
processes (depoliticization and upgrading of the bureaucracy) ,
strengthening of local governments leading to greater autonomy; and
putting more resources in the educational system so that education is
provided for all, and it is the kind of education where the values of
human rights and peace are at the core.

Correspondingly, we cannot accept counter-violence as the better nor best
way to fight state violence.

Our society is festering in a culture of violence -- violence that begets
violence, that dehumanizes the victims and the perpetuators, reduces all
fora to monologues, and elevates killing to the status of a national
sport. We find in our midst self-righteous protagonists out to lay claim
to their rights while blinded by their dogma and politics to the rights of
others. There is much to untangle in the orthodoxy of class antagonism, of
class struggle being necessarily violent, the state being the instrument
of the ruling class, and the primacy of armed struggle in achieving
political change. There is much to question about the soundness of the
Maoist injunction to encircle the cities from the countryside as the route
to revolutionary victory, the national democratic revolution as a stepping
stone to a socialist revolution, etc. Certainly, we should discuss these,
debate and challenge (but not kill) each other.

Let us have a national debate not to divide us further but in order for us
-- state actors, counter-state forces, and ordinary citizens -- to reach
some national consensus on how to best achieve social and political
change. Without a shared norm or ground rules, and a consensual road map
to start as off, we are doomed as a nation.

To conclude, the campaign against political killings of leftwing activists
requires focused, case-specific response directed against the perpetrators
and their chain of command. It also compels us to ask hard questions about
the national security orientation and national security policies of the
state and concerned agencies.

But our advocacy should be extended to become a campaign for a peace
process; a movement against political violence as a whole, promoting human
rights and extracting accountability from all parties (such as what Sulong
CARHRIHL aims to do, using the CARHRIHL as framework); a dialogue for
norms founded on life-affirming means and ends; a national quest for peace
built on respect for human rights.

Human rights, peace, students, development and other groups should come
together to work for new politics, the kind of politics that makes a firm
stand against political violence.

References:
Buzan, Barry. 1983. People States & Fear, The National Security Problem in
International Relations. Hertfordshire: Harvester Wheatsheaf.
Rotberg, Robert . 2004. When States Fail, Causes and Consequence.
Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press.
Soyinka, Wole. 2004. Climate of Fear. London: Profile Books Ltd.
Stepanova, Ektarina. 2003. Anti-terrorism and Peace-building During and
After Conflict. Stockholm: Stockholm International Peace Research
Institute.

Death squads in the Philippines

"It seems that the Colombian regime of Alvaro Uribe is not the only client of U.S. imperialism that uses paramilitary death squads against popular leaders, trade unionists and people’s organizations.

"Now the government of Gloria Macapagal Arroyo in the Philippines, who in 2002 was the first Asian leader to fully-embrace Bush’s so-called War on Terror, has unleashed this scourge on the people of her country, at the same time that she has re-invited U.S. troops onto the islands they were driven from in 1992." Read more from workers.org.

Palparan can’t make it (AGAIN); hearing reset

"MAJ. Gen. (ret.) Jovito Palparan, blamed by militant groups for the spate of extrajudicial killings, could not make it to yesterday’s public hearing of the Melo Commission, prompting the panel to reset his appearance to next week." Read more from Malaya.com.

Protests vs political killings set abroad to mark martial law

FILIPINOS and their allies in the United States will participate Thursday in an internationally coordinated global day of action condemning political killings in the Philippines. Read more from Malaya.com.

Arroyo legitimacy sinks in quicksand

GMA has the international community is breathing down her neck. Amando Doronila explains why.

RP activists to hold protests in 10 countries over killings

FILIPINO activists will hold protests in the US and at least nine other countries to call for international condemnation of a wave of killings of left-wing activists in the Philippines, organizers said Tuesday. Read more.

Caravan vs murders, rights abuses launched

A caravan for human rights kicked off from this city’s business district Tuesday on its way to Manila to join a rally marking the day Martial Law was declared 36 years ago. Read more.

Farmers filing human rights cases before UN

ACTIVISTS are stepping up their campaign to bring international pressure to bear on the Arroyo government for the political killings in the country, with an official of a farmers’ organization flying to Geneva, Switzerland Sunday to file complaints before the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC). Read more.

Marcos and Arroyo

"[...] In his long years as a professional politician, Marcos had gained an insight into the general predisposition of Filipinos—that they did not care enough about liberty to risk their lives defending it. For him, civil liberties and political rights had become so meaningless to most Filipinos because of their poverty that they would exchange them anytime for the promise of food and jobs. That many people went underground to fight his regime shows that he was wrong, but the fact that he lasted more than 13 years as a dictator suggests that he wasn’t entirely wrong. Had Marcos succeeded in turning the Philippine economy around and improving the economic situation of the average Filipino, it would have been impossible to overthrow him.

"Though the circumstances are not the same, Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo finds herself today in an analogous situation. Because of the legitimacy problem that has hounded her since she assumed the presidency in 2001, she has had to fight every inch of the way just to survive. But every action she takes to protect her position only impels her toward an indefinite extension of her powers." Read more from the PDI's Randy David.

Kin of anti-Left killings form group to get justice

"The spouses of slain Bayan Muna-Kalinga leader Rafael Markus Bangit and activists Albert Terredano, Jose Doton, Jose Manegdeg III and Gloria Casuga joined the launching of Hustisya, ... [a] group to give the relatives of victims of political killings a stronger voice in demanding justice for the attacks on their loved ones." Read more from the PDI.

Hope, fear mix as desaparecidos’ kin wait

"Much like an expectant mother, Elizabeth Calubad has a bag of fresh clothes and personal items ready for when the time comes. But her expectation is tinged with fear: She does not know if the ones she is waiting for—her husband, National Democratic Front consultant Rogelio Calubad, and their son, 29-year-old Gabriel—are alive or dead." Read more from the PDI.

Demonizing the Left

"When a bully loses an argument, he pulls out a gun. The bully is the Arroyo administration. It has long lost the argument by blocking the search for truth in the allegations of massive cheating and vote-buying in the 2004 elections. Now it’s pointing a gun at the head of every critic who dares say her administration is illegitimate.

"That’s the long and short of the current spate of extra-judicial killings."

Read more from Malaya.com.

PhIlippine Peasant Support Network condemns "red-baiting"

"Pesante-USA based in Los Angeles, in a statement ... vehemently condemns AFP
Chief General Esperon’s statement against Ocampo and Casino and other leaders of the progressive mass organizations in the Philippines." Read more from Los Angeles Indymedia.

Aeta Leader Abducted

"The reign of terror continues in Central Luzon even with the retirement of Palparan. At about 1:30 this afternoon, Nelson Mallari, secretary general of the CLAA was abducted by the ... Philippine National Police in a checkpoint," reports Bulatlat.com.

Saber Republic

"Military officers apparently view all politicians with contempt. The generals were a no-show in a House inquiry on extrajudicial killings not just once, but twice," writes the PDI. Read more.

"A credibility problem on top of a legitimacy issue"

Elmer Ordonez discusses the Philippine government's image from an international perspective.

Amnesty International meets with president

Amnesty International Secretary General Irene Khan met with GMA and "presented the President with a memorandum setting out international guidelines on commissions of inquiries." Read more.

Europe takes note

The European Commission expressed concern over a surge in extrajudicial killings in the Philippines during Arroyo's trip to Brussels. Read more.

Good and bad

Conrado de Quiros points out that NPA threats to 'bring down' Palparan would only give GMA her "her own 9/11".

Amnesty International denounces appointment

THE London-based human rights group Amnesty International (AI) yesterday said giving Major Gen. (ret.) Jovito Palparan a position in government will only grant him "another legacy" despite numerous accusations of human rights violations. Read more.

KMU-SMR secretary general gets threat to life

"Kilusang Mayo Uno-Southern Mindanao Region (KMU, May First Movement) secretary general Omar Bantayan received threats to his life as he was about to leave his residence at around 10 a.m. this morning." Read more from the Antonio Zumel Center for Press Freedom.

A Day to Remember What Terrorism Means

from the Cordillera Human Rights Alliance (CHRA)

"Two events presenting a harsh irony.

"Today is the 40th day since the death of Alyce Omengan-Claver. She is remembered by her family, friends and those who have known that the Clavers were ambushed as part of the implementation of Operation Plan Bantay Laya.

"Today, Major General Jovito Palparan, is celebrating his birthday and is retiring from service from the Armed Forces of the Philippines. He is being rewarded with the assurance that the government will surely take him into service after today whereas he should be punished for his human rights violations. Last week, an announcement was made that he will be appointed as deputy national security adviser for counter-insurgency operations - an appointment that was taken back because of the strong public opinion and international pressure against it. Nevertheless, the government assurance remains

"It should be recalled that the main suspect behind the Claver ambush, former Police Director Pedro Ramos was tagged as the protégé of Palparan. Like Palparan he sowed fear among the people of Kalinga. He labeled Bayan Muna, Cordillera Peoples Alliance and different people’s organizations as “the enemy”, as fronts of the Communist Party of the Philippines and the New People’s Army. He formed death squads. He directed the assassination of Rafael Markus Bangit and the Claver ambush and the State has not held him accountable for it.

"Forty days after the Claver ambush, justice has not yet been served. Ramos was transferred to Region III and his mentor, Palparan, is being rewarded.

"While we continue to mourn and rage on this day, we should remember clearly what terrorism means. Terrorism means sowing fear into the lives of the people preventing them to live with dignity and with respect to their basic rights. This is what the State, Palparan and Ramos have been doing. This is what we should unwaveringly fight against.

"STOP THE KILLINGS!

"PROSECUTE VIOLATORS OF HUMAN RIGHTS! PROSECUTE RAMOS AND PALPARAN!

"JUSTICE FOR ALYCE! JUSTICE FOR MAKOY!

"JUSTICE FOR ALL VICTIMS OF STATE TERRORISM!"

-----
For reference:
Beverly L. Longid
Vice Chairperson, CHRA
Contact nos: +6374 446.6227 or 442.6040

Tribute to the Martyred Heroes of the Cordillera

The Kalayaan Centre in Vancouver, Canada, pays tribute:

"As part of the international "Stop the Killings in the Philippines" Campaign, BIBAK and the British Colunbia Committee for Human Rights in the Phililppines organized a "Tribute to the Martyred Heroes of the Cordillera" Liturgy of Celebration and Renewal of Commitment: In memory of our martyrs in honour of the generation next to come.

"There was good attendance, powerful testimonials fromthe relatives of alyce and markus brought tears to the eyes of many of those present, community singing of "pananagutan" sung in tagalog and then english brought a warm sense of community, and the speakers challenged the community, expressing that this is just the beginning of the work that we need to do to ensure that the principals that markus and alyce fought for continues, as overseas cordillerans and filipinos our existance is always connected to our land and what takes place back home.

"Relatives, friends, and community members danced for justice to be served against those responsible for the deaths of markus, alyce, and all the victims of the political killings in the philippines.

"The tribute ended in high spirits with a feast of delicious foods including fresh wild sockeye salmon donated by local native fisherman of the Cheam First Nation."

For more photos visit:

http://www.kalayaancentre.net/

Dictatorship cloaked in democracy

"Marcos was a dictator, but at least his Proclamation 1081 [the declaration of martial law in 1972] made sure that we understood that he was one," opines Sr. Crescencia Lucero, executive director of Task Force Detainees of the Philippines. Read more.

The face of terror

Patricia Evangelista writes eloquently and damningly about the power of naming and the abuse thereof.

‘One of the worst cases’ submitted to Melo Commission

The Philippine Daily Inquirer describes one particularly brutal case from 2005.

'The butcher' snubs court. Again. For the fourth time.

"For the fourth time, Maj. Gen. Jovito Palparan Jr. [who is largely associated with the killings in Northern Luzon] was a no-show yesterday at a Court of Appeals hearing on a habeas corpus petition filed by the parents of two missing University of the Philippines students who allegedly were abducted by soldiers in Bulacan." Read more from Malaya.com.

Only a tool after all

"There is indeed no sign that the international attention the killings are getting–and the Philippines’ fast developing reputation not only as “the most murderous place in the world for journalists” [...] but also as a country whose government cannot protect its citizens and “whose word is meaningless” [...]–is having any effect at all in stopping or even diminishing their number. Over the last two days there has instead been a palpable increase in abductions, illegal detention and political killings from north to south. It is almost as if someone were eager to meet a deadline or a quota."Read more of Luis Teodoro's commentary.

2 youth organizers nabbed in Nueva Ecija

"Police arrested two organizers of the militant youth group Anakbayan in Cabanatuan City on Monday," reports the Philippine Daily Inquirer. Read more.

Two more activists killed over the weekend

Candelario Ayuda, a member of the Bayan Muna party list, and Jovito Pinakilid, who had been campaigning for the rights of indigenous people in the province, were gunned down Sunday, September 3. Read more.

WCC condemns killings

The World Council of Churches released a statement condemning the extra-judicial killings in the Philippines, and called on the "Philippine Government to hold accountable any members of the military found to be involved in extrajudicial killings, instruct the military to cease listing churches and church workers as "enemies of the state", and reverse the national security policy of making no distinction between combatants and non-combatants within the current counter-insurgency campaign."

An insider's perspective

Bulatlat.com conducts an interesting interview with an ex-Philippine Military Army cadet, who now condemns the military "counter-insurgency" actions after his uncle---a leader of several leftist organizations---was killed.

DOJ accused of sitting on human rights cases

Senate minority leader Aquilino Pimentel Jr. yesterday accused the Department of Justice of sitting on the long list of cases of political killings and other rights abuses. Read more.

Another militant killed

"An organizer of the National Federation of Sugarcane Worker was shot dead Friday by two unidentified men in Manapla, Negros Occidental," writes the Malaya.

Proclamation No. 1017: Policy matrix of slaughter

The "crushing" of rebel armies---which has also resulted in the deaths of civilians---is part of President Arroyo's "crash program", intended to turn the Philippine socio-political situation around for the better. Amando Doronila points out what went wrong.

Palparan claims victory...

...over communist rebels in Lupao, Nueva Ecija, which he calls the “center of gravity” of the New People’s Army (NPA). Read more.

Command responsibility

"[President Arroyo] has not told Palparan that in a democracy, people are presumed innocent until proven guilty, she has told Palparan to keep up the good work," writes Conrado de Quiros.

Palparan’s trail: 136 cases in 11 months

Human rights watchdog Karapatan presents this statistic linking Maj. Gen. Jovito Palparan to the "71 cases of summary executions, five massacres, 14 frustrated killings and 46 disappearances" in the Central Luzon Region.

2 activists arrested; crackdown feared

"Two activists were arrested without a warrant Friday (August 30) afternoon in Talisay City, stoking fears among militant groups of a fresh crackdown on political dissidents in Cebu," reports the PDI.

IFJ appalled by killings

The International Federation of Journalists slams the Philippines’ government for inaction, after month of murders, attacks and death threats against journalists.

The reign of criminals and outlaws

Malaya.com argues that in spite of the number of people that communist insurgent groups have killed, only the government "enjoys a legally sanctioned monopoly over the instruments of violence, can formally be accused of human rights violations."