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Commentary:
Lies, Intrigues and AFP Propaganda

If the much-vaunted human-rights training in the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) is any good, not one soldier should ever commit a human-rights violation. But this, obviously, is not the case.

By CARLOS H. CONDE
Bulatlat.com/MindaNews

Maj. Vic Tomas, the spokesman of the 701^st Infantry Brigade of the Philippine Army in Southern Mindanao, is proving to be one hell of a military propagandist. A few days after news broke out that human-rights activist Benjaline “Beng” Hernandez was killed in a massacre, he released a statement titled “Beng was also our friend” that basically said 1) that Beng had been familiar with the people at the military, 2) that she was starting to confide in them, 3) that she was growing disillusioned with Karapatan, and 4) that because Karapatan suspected that Beng had grown close with Tomas et al, she was “punished” by sending her to the hinterlands where, Tomas implied, she would face certain death.

Joel Virador (left) and Fr. Fausto Tentorio

The release was a PR masterstroke in that it portrayed the AFP as not only a benign institution but one that progressives like Beng could easily get comfortable with. On the other hand, the subtext goes, Karapatan and other groups from the Left are vengeful and uncaring.

Tomas’s statement also put the onus on Karapatan, for it to prove that it was not the organization that the major depicted it to be. True enough, the next day, we saw on TV an emotional Karapatan secretary-general for Southern Mindanao, Joel Virador, defending his group and lambasting Tomas for sowing intrigue within the human rights group.

Tomas must have felt so proud of himself. He must have thought that he was a genius. In a way, he was. Except that, like all military propaganda, the truth is the first casualty of such devious manipulation of the media.

To be sure, Beng had become familiar to people at the AFP, but only because she had to meet the likes of Tomas in the course of following up on human-rights cases and in making sure that political detainees are treated well. This was perhaps the closest that Tomas got to the truth in his statement.

The other points -- that Beng was starting to confide in the military, that she was growing disillusioned with Karapatan, and that she was sent to the hinterlands as “punishment” – are, at the very least, suspicious simply because Beng is dead. She was brutally killed by paramilitary men and so is not around anymore to defend herself.

As such, Tomas and the military can pretty much invent whatever fiction and intrigue they want to discredit Karapatan and to besmirch the memory of a person whose love for the people and respect for human rights is matched only by the military’s contempt for these.

I must point out, Tomas and the institution he represents are not exactly on a moral high ground here. What has the AFP got to show for as far as respect for human rights is concerned? Nothing.

AFP spokesmen, in denying allegations of human-rights abuses, would parrot the ridiculously illogical line that says “the AFP trains its soldiers to respect human rights” and, ergo, could not possibly show disrespect for these. It’s like saying Tomas was raised a Christian and could not possibly commit sin. The AFP wouldn’t venture to discuss how this “training” is translated on the ground. Based on its own human-rights record, as determined by the government-controlled Commission on Human Rights itself, this training is worthless.

According to the CHR, the AFP has been consistently violating human-rights from the time of Marcos up to this day. In the first year alone of the Arroyo regime, said the Ecumenical Movement for Justice and Peace, the military has been charged with 614 cases of human-rights violations. It has been linked to the killing of several members and officers of progressive groups such as Bayan Muna, Bayan and Anakbayan. In Basilan alone the past months, according to testimonies before the Senate committee on justice, the AFP has been arresting residents illegally and killing farmers and peasants indiscriminately.

If the much-vaunted human-rights training in the AFP is any good, not one soldier should ever commit a human-rights violation. But this, obviously, is not the case.

I can almost hear Tomas retort: “Sure, but how about the New People’s Army? It also violates human rights!” Well, my answer to that would be, the Communists are not in power. As such, they are accountable only to history, not -- unlike the AFP -- to the Constitution.

As to Karapatan, if it is indeed allied with the NPA, as Tomas claims, then he should sue the hell out of that group. But this much I can say about Karapatan: Its record speaks for itself. It helped to expose the abuses of the Marcos regime and those who succeeded it. It did so before, it is doing so now. By its very mandate, therefore, Karapatan is the anti-thesis of the military. No wonder Tomas and his ilk would do everything to discredit and destroy it. Bulatlat.com

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