In Central Luzon north of Manila, there's hardly a
week without a throng of mourners ambling their way in a funeral to
bury someone. That someone is a farm worker, a peasant leader, even
a priest or a city councilor. Most of those to be buried are affiliated
with progressive party-list groups. All were felled by an assassin's
bullet. All killings were executed professionally. In varying degrees,
similar scenes are taking place in other provinces - in La Union, Leyte,
Quezon and elsewhere.
Since January this year, at least 13 have been buried in Central
Luzon region alone; others were abducted without a trace. Similar
cases have happened elsewhere. Romeo T. Capulong, a well-known human
rights lawyer and UN judge ad litem, nearly met the same fate in Nueva
Ecija: his would-be assassins sped away on board a van after sensing
that the lawyer's house was guarded by sympathetic barangay tanods
(village security unit).
In just two weeks, three of the victims were gunned down one after
the other: Young Tarlac Councilor Abelardo Ladera, Fr. William Tadena
and peasant leader Victor "Tang Ben" Concepcion. All three had supported
the strike of the farm workers at Hacienda Luisita, 120 kms north
of Manila. Though sickly at 67, Concepcion was serving as secretary
general of the peasant group Aguman da reng Maglalautang Capampangan
and coordinator of the Anakpawis political party when he was assassinated
in Angeles City.
The dead and those who have disappeared are no ordinary souls - they
earned the ire of the powers-that-be for fighting a cause. That cause
is either asking for what is rightfully theirs - decent wages and
a small lot to farm, as in Hacienda Luisita; or protesting human rights
violations and the militarization of many rural towns; or organizing
communities for the next electoral struggle. All were unarmed, were
loved by their mass of constituents and belonged to legitimate and
increasingly popular organizations. They were outspoken against other
issues - like the onerous VAT that the government wants enforced for
debt-servicing or the continuing war games between government and
U.S. forces that infringe on the country's sovereignty.
Politically-motivated
In short, their killings were politically-motivated. This is no martial
law - but it could be worse than martial law itself. Is it low-intensity
conflict (LIC) Part 2 or is it the "Indonesian solution"?
In a country that has seen no real difference between the martial
law period in the 1970s-1980s and today in terms of continuing rights
violations, the recent killings, disappearances and other human rights
cases appear to be premeditated by a campaign to stifle dissent and
dismantle the legal apparatus of the progressive movement in the Philippines.
Under President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, the killing and abduction
of progressive leaders and activists who are affiliated with the people's
democratic movement (now totaling, conservatively, at least 300) all
over the country began to escalate after Bayan Muna (people first)
topped the May 2001 party-list elections. The spate of killings where
the victims included human rights advocates, lawyers and local officials
began in Oriental Mindoro, an island province west of Manila.
Shortly thereafter, a newsletter of the Armed Forces of the Philippines
(AFP) named several people's organizations and party-list groups -
the same groups that helped bring Macapagal-Arroyo to the presidency
in the successful oust-Estrada movement - as "terrorist" groups that
should be "neutralized." "Neutralize" in the military parlance is
to be silenced or, in the fascist mindset, to mark for "liquidation."
War on terror
Macapagal-Arroyo's "war on terror" - launched following U.S. President
George W. Bush's declaring the Philippines as the "second front" in
his global and indefinite "war on terror" - began to target not only
the bandit Abu Sayyaf group but also militant leaders and activists.
In her national security policy, militant people's organizations were
lumped with the New People's Army (NPA) as the country's top "national
security threat" even as the NPA itself, through the recommendation
of defense and military officials, was included in the foreign terrorist
organization lists of the U.S. state department and other foreign
governments.
Activists cannot forget the time when the President called labor
leader and now representative Crispin Beltran as a "communist" simply
because he disagreed with her anti-people policies and was supporting
a transport strike. With this tag, Beltran became a fair target of
military assassination.
The renewed counter-insurgency policy - now renamed as "anti-terror"
campaign - adopted by Macapagal-Arroyo and AFP intensified the use
of psywar tactics to demonize the legitimate people's organizations
particularly the party-list groups as "terrorist" or "terrorist fronts."
At the same time, the AFP called for the organizing of more paramilitary
units even as, coincidentally, the arming and deployment of anti-communist
fanatics and vigilantes - often including members of factions who
had bolted from the NPA - was also begun. Meantime, U.S. military
aid was increased and U.S.-directed military training began to focus
on counter-insurgency strategy and tactics. Most recently, the joint
war exercises began to be held in known NPA turfs such as in Central
and Southern Luzon.
No coincidence
It was no coincidence that as this national security policy was -
and continues to be - in effect, scores of extra-judicial killings
and abductions involving mass leaders and activists took place. But
this demonization and vicious campaign directed against government's
most effective critics and adversary proved to be not the only component
of government's security policy. The brutal solution to political
dissent and the revolutionary movement also required legitimization
a la Marcos PDs through the enactment of an anti-terrorism bill (ATB)
and the revival of the bill for a national ID system. Essentially
the ATB seeks to eliminate the boundary between simple political dissent
and "terrorism" and equate the assertion of one's bill of rights with
abetting - or as an act of - terrorism. Now the AFP hierarchy wants
a media gag on the coverage of "terrorist," i.e. critical issues,
included in the proposed ATB.
While the use of violence has become rampant, the government is luring
the underground Left through the National Democratic Front of the
Philippines (NDFP) to go back to the peace negotiations. But the objective
of the government and defense-military officials is to pressure the
NDFP to capitulate. To do this, government is escalating the use of
violence against the Left's alleged front organizations while dangling
the terrorist label: The underground Left including NDFP senior political
consultant Jose Maria Sison will be scrapped from the list if they
capitulate.
The spate of killings reportedly perpetrated by the military and
other state forces has not gone unnoticed in Congress, the Commission
on Human Rights, the justice department as well as in a number of
international bodies and rights watchdogs such as the Amnesty International
most of whom agree that government forces are leading human rights
violators. But a general policy of denial, indifference and arrogance
pervades at the highest levels of government and, in fact, Macapagal-Arroyo
herself is endorsing the reign of terror against legitimate dissent
by rewarding the alleged perpetrators from the AFP with promotions
and constant pledges of salary increases and other perks. AFP generals
often twist facts and underestimate the intelligence of ordinary Filipinos
by blaming the NPA for the crimes ostensibly to generate popular outrage
and take more recruits into its ranks.
Logistics and record
The systematic killing of mass leaders and activists can be sustained
on a nationwide scale only by an institution that has both the logistics
and the carte blanche or blanket authority to commit such atrocities
with impunity without being held accountable. It is the AFP, based
on human rights reports here and abroad, that has the record of atrocities
which appear to be backed by a security policy and which began with
Marcos rule and was continued by the dictator's successors' "total
war" policy and "war on terror." As Judge Capulong would put it, one
does not need concrete evidence to prove that state terrorism is taking
place all over the country - the "pattern and practice" of endless
killings and abductions already attests to it.
In Central Luzon, the Luisita land and labor issues and government's
own interest to build a multi-million highway linking the region's
so-called industrial and trade zones harmonized with the military's
anti-terror campaign. This confluence of interests has erupted in
mass killings - 12 have so far been murdered there including the seven
farm workers who were massacred by security forces on Nov. 16 last
year. The Cojuangco-Aquino family which owns the Hacienda Luisita
is closely allied to the incumbent President.
But if government believes that its provocative actions and the application
of what by indications is increasingly an "Indonesian solution"* will
force the Left to finally give up its cause then it should perhaps
think again. Repression during the Marcos dictatorship enraged the
people more. As the guerrillas said then, Marcos became the biggest
recruiter for the NPA. Bulatlat
(* "Indonesian solution" refers to the CIA-backed summary execution
of some 500,000 suspected communists in Indonesia in 1965, with the
chief architect, General Soeharto, taking power thereafter. The Soeharto
dictatorship, supported by the U.S. government, lasted until 1998.)
