I rise on a question of personal and collective privilege in light
of the recent spate of killings and abductions of members of my party,
Bayan Muna and those of my fellow Party-List Representatives in the
Anakpawis and Gabriela Women's Party. There is Mr. Speaker, distinguished
colleagues, a seemingly grave danger even to the lives of at least
four of the present Party-List Representatives, namely: Representatives
Teodoro Casiño, Rafael Mariano, Liza Maza and this Representation.
Why do I conclude this threat is impending? In the first week of
March, there has been a series of military actions against members
of our parties. On the first day of March, four members of the Gabriela
Women's Party were accosted and arrested by soldiers of the Philippine
Army, not by members of the Philippine National Police (PNP) who are
properly authorized to do such arrests, in the town of Sampaloc, Quezon.The
four members of the Gabriela Women's Party are Leonila Manalo; Nancy
Elle, Aileen Ramos and Miralyn Gamba. Only their alertness in having
boarded a jeepney followed by the soldiers and seeking recourse to
the protection of the PNP in Sampaloc prevented them from being carted
away to a military camp. There was no warrant of arrest and, subsequently,
they were freed without any charges filed against them.
On the 3rd of March in Tarlac, in Barangay Paraiso of Tarlac City,
Bayan Muna leader and number two councilor of Tarlac City, Abelardo
Ladera, was murdered in cold blood at past 1pm, while he was purchasing
spare parts for his jeep. On the same afternoon another Bayan Muna
leader and the former secretary general of Bagong Alyansang Makabayan
– Nueva Ecija, Danilo Macapagal, was abducted by armed men and forcibly
made to board a van that sped away. To this day Mr. Macapagal has
not been located.
On the 6th of this month, a company-sized formation of the 63rd Infantry
Battalion commanded by Col. Manuelito Uzi under the 803rd Infantry
Brigade commanded by Col. Bernardo de Luna in Catarman, Samar, staked
out before the headquarters of the Bayan Muna-Northern Samar headquarters,
in an apparent effort to terrorize or threaten the members of Bayan
Muna in that province who were protesting the deployment of military
troops in the town of Catubig. And on the following day, the seventh
of this month, in the Province of Zambales, two army soldiers from
the 24th Infantry Battalion arrested Mer Dizon, the chairman of the
provincial chapter of Anakpawis, who is now in detention in the Iba
Provincial Jail.
In Central Luzon, Mr. Speaker, this renewed political repression
h as already resulted in 11 killings and five abductions or disappearances,
only from January to the first week of March. This occurred in the
provinces of Bulacan, Pampanga, Nueve Ecija, Tarlac, Aurora and Bataan.
Apparently, Mr. Speaker, what happened in Mindoro in the years 2001-2003
where several killings, abduction and disappearances occurred, is
now a threatening phenomenon in Central Luzon and also beginning to
spread in the provinces of Quezon, Laguna and Batangas in Southern
Tagalog.
This is not the first time, Mr. Speaker, that I stand up in this
Chamber to make similar denunciations of political repression against
our political party and the people's organizations supportive of our
party. In the 12th Congress, this august Body approved a resolution
that led the House Committee on Human Rights to make an investigation
in the series of killings of more than 40 members of Bayan Muna over
a period of almost three years. There was an investigation and there
were recommendations by the committee, among them the freezing of
the promotion of Col. Jovito Palparan, who was tagged as the "butcher
of Mindoro". Apparently, the recommendation of the committee had fallen
on deaf ears, there was no positive action. Instead, Col. Palparan
was subsequently promoted to brigadier general. And after his stint
as the Chief of military contingent sent to Iraq, which was withdrawn
to save the life of overseas Filipino worker Angelo de la Cruz, he
has been promoted to head the 8th Infantry Division in Samar. It is
his units that were harassing now the people at the headquarters of
Bayan Muna in Catarman. The questions that I raise again, Mr. Speaker
are: First, is the government, this present government, determined
to illegalize Bayan Muna. Anakpawis and Gabriela Women's Party, or
is it set on stopping the growth and influence of our parties as defenders
and advocates of the people's interest and welfare in this legislature
and through the democratic mass movement?
Second, is it the government's policy to make no distinction between
the underground revolutionary movement and the aboveground legal democratic
mass movement, as the Armed Forces of the Philippines and the Philippine
National Police blatantly do, and thus consider as legitimate targets
for armed attack or physical elimination both those underground and
those aboveground?
Third, have the Armed Forces operating units been given police powers
to make arrests, searches, and seizures on civilians? If so, since
when and on what legal basis was this power given to them? In so many
instances in Mindoro before and recently in Quezon, the Philippine
National Police leadership acknowledged its powerlessness to interfere
with supposed military operations tagged as "Internal Security Operations"
or ISO even when civilians are very evident victims of human rights
violation arising from such military operations.
The most appalling of all the recent developments, Mr. Speaker, was
a series of briefings that the Northern Luzon Command gave to government
entities, including the Department of Justice, in relation to the
unresolved issues in Hacienda Luisita after the massacre of the striking
workers on November 16, 2004.
I have a copy of the briefing which is also in video that identify
among supposed personalities of the Communist Party of the Philippines
and the New People's Army who allegedly planned and implemented the
workers' strikes and were allegedly even responsible for the violence
that attended the dispersal on November 16, the very man I mentioned
earlier, Councilor Abelardo Ladera, who is now lying in state at the
plaza of Tarlac City and would be interred tomorrow.
The military action taken against him, in this Representation's view,
is directly related to the implication by the Northern Luzon Command
of Councilor Ladera as a member of the New People's Army. Along with
Councilor Ladera, the briefing implicated four of us Party-List Representatives
here in Congress in a report related to the strike at Hacienda Luisita
in which we Representatives Teodoro Casiño, Rafael Mariano and myself
are cited as having gone on November 15 at the strike picket and,
I quote the NOLCOM brifing, "urged the workers to continue their strike
as one speaker shouted they will pursue their strike even if there
will be bloodshed". And it further says " that after the incident,
the three of us, including Congresswoman Liza Maza of Gabriela, arrived
on November 17 and attended the wake of the casualties," and that
we "delivered the invective or incendiary statements against government
forces."
This is a damning accusation against four Members of the House of
Representatives, I am aware that the Chief of the Philippine National
Police has written to Speaker Jose de Venecia complaining about the
"impropriety" that the four of us, Party-List Representatives, have
supposedly been responsible for by both agitating the workers to defy
the order to return to work of the Department of Labor, of instigating
and making publicity out of the massacre. It has been alleged by NOLCOM
that all of these actions were in consonance with the broad program
of the underground revolutionary movement.
The direct implication, Mr. Speaker, is that the Party-List Representatives
are taking command and implementing programs from the CPP-NPA that
foment violence. After, the murder of Councilor Ladera on the third
of March, this Representation has been receiving a lot of warnings
by well-meaning friends to take extra care security precautions because
the military are likely to replicate what they did to Councilor Ladera
to the Party-List Representatives mentioned in this briefing by NOLCOM,
as possible targets of similar armed attacks.
By any cognition or perception, Mr. Speaker, the killings, abductions,
and disappearances cannot be but acts of terrorism. The probability,
if not the certainty, that these are perpetrated by agents of the
State, through its military or paramilitary operatives, makes the
situation a larger cause for public concern and for urgent actions
to put an end to these atrocities.
I ask, Mr. Speaker, distinguished colleagues, can't the Thirteen
Congress do something about the situation? Or, as happened after the
Twelfth Congress hearings, investigations and recommendations, will
the situation of killings continue endangering the lives of many of
peoples' organizations and of Party-List Representatives trying their
best to give relief to our struggling peasants, workers, urban poor
and other marginalized sectors?
This, I submit, Mr. Speaker, is a question that must be directly
addressed by Congress. The matter has been brought to the Committee
on Ethics; I think it should be more than the Committee on Ethics
that must look into the allegations beyond "impropriety" on the part
of the four Representative with regard to the Hacienda Luisita strike.
The very serious charges of the NOLCOM need to be substantiated, otherwise,
there has to be some punitive actions on the military for putting
in danger the very lives and the very security of elected Representatives,
namely: Reps. Teodoro Casiño, Liza Maza, Rafael Mariano and this Representation.
I submit, Mr. Speakers, that action is awaited from us in this Chamber.
