This story
was taken from Bulatlat, the Philippines's alternative weekly
newsmagazine (www.bulatlat.com, www.bulatlat.net, www.bulatlat.org).
Vol. V, No. 36, October 16-22, 2005
General Out to Quell Opposition vs GMA’s
NorthRail, Expressway Projects? A peasant congressman from
Central Luzon said that the heightened militarization in the region – which is
taking place while Maj. Gen. Jovito Palparan was designated commander of the 7th
Infantry Division last September – has a hidden agenda: To neutralize the
people’s dissent over two priority projects of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.
BY DABET CASTAÑEDA Is there a relationship between government’s
flagship projects and heightened militarization in Central Luzon (CL)?
The designation last September 2005 of
military officer Jovito Palparan as division commander of the 7th
Infantry Division of the Philippine Army (ID PA) based in Fort Magsaysay, Laur,
Nueva Ecija was meant to quell opposition to two flagship projects of the
government, namely the North Luzon Railways Corporation (NorthRail) and the
Subic-Clark-Tarlac Expressway Project (SCTEP), a House party-list representative
said. In a press conference in Quezon City Oct.
12, Anakpawis (toiling masses) Party-list Rep. Rafael Mariano said that alleged
involvement in political killings seems to have become one of the grounds for
promotion in the military. “The immunity granted by Malacañang to
Palparan despite charges of human rights violations hurled against him serves as
encouragement for the other officers and members of the institution to engage in
similar counter-insurgency operations that target civilians and sow fear and
terror over civilian populations,” Mariano told reporters. Palparan, who has been promoted by President
Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo from colonel to major general in two years, has been
accused of human rights violations. Under investigation earlier by the
Commission on Human Rights, the justice department and then Congress, he was
linked by rights watchdogs to the killings of activists in the Mindoro province
and the Eastern Visayas (EV) region. Both areas are rich in mineral deposits.
During Palparan’s stint in those areas, local organizations there stressed that
his designation was part of the government’s plan to dampen the opposition to
mining activities there. As a result of public clamor and widespread
accusations against Palparan, the Commission on Appointments (CA) decided to
defer the confirmation of his promotion to a two-star general. Mariano, who traces his peasant origins in
Nueva Ecija, said that despite the CA’s decision, Palparan remains a “model
general” for beleaguered President Macapagal-Arroyo. Proof of this is his
assignment to CL where the general is again expected to “deliver.” For Mariano,
the latter word refers to quelling opposition to the President’s pilot projects
in the region. As commander of the 7th ID,
Palparan currently heads two brigades (702nd and 703rd)
and six battalions (24th, 48th, 56th, 69th,
70th, and 71st) of the PA covering eight provinces in CL.
Palparan’s ID is under the Northern Luzon Command (Nolcom). Since he assumed the military top post in
CL, the human rights alliance Karapatan-CL (Alliance for the Advancement of
Peoples’ Rights-CL) has documented a total of 23 victims of human rights
violations and international humanitarian law. Twelve of these victims have been
killed allegedly by the military. The manner in which the violations have
occurred is ruthless and has sown fear among villagers, Karapatan-CL said in its
Oct. 12 statement. The group’s fact-finding missions showed that the victims
were killed or abducted inside their homes with the incidents witnessed by their
own families. The group’s reports also showed a pattern of
how the alleged military perpetrators operate. The perpetrators are said to
attack at midnight, the victims are shot several times in the head and body and
the victims are left in public places. “These are done specifically to sow fear
among the people,” said Sr. Cecile Ruiz, chair of Karapatan-CL. Central Luzon is currently the area for two
controversial flagship projects of the government. The $503-million NorthRail is a railway
modernization project and a joint venture of the Philippine and Chinese
governments. The project spans from Caloocan City (Metro Manila) through Clark
Airbase, Pampanga (CL) to the Subic Freeport Zone in Zambales (CL) with two
extensions running from Caloocan City to Fort Bonifacio (Metro Manila) and from
Clark heading toward Poro Point in La Union (Northern Luzon). The first phase is
a 32-km stretch from Caloocan to Malolos, Bulacan (CL). The Stop NorthRail Project Coalition (SNPC),
one of the project’s opponents, stressed that the contract entered into by the
two countries is onerous, one-sided and inimical to Filipinos. A report by the
law center of the University of the Philippines also has similar finding. The
project is currently under Senate investigation. The SCTEP, on the other hand, is the sixth
in the President’s 10-point agenda. Spearheaded by the Bases Conversion
Development Authority (BCDA), it is funded by an P18-billion loan ($322.41
million, based on an exchange rate of P55.83 per US dollar) from the Japan Bank
for International Cooperation (JBIC). This expressway project passes through the
6,453-ha. Hacienda Luisita property. The latter is the vast sugar estate owned
and operated by the family of former President Corazon Cojuangco-Aquino who
belongs to the powerful Cojuangco clan in Tarlac. According to its website, the BCDA says that
the SCTEP is designed to provide the “shortest, direct and efficient link” among
areas in Central Luzon, specifically the Subic Bay Special Economic Zone and
Freeport Zone in Zambales, the Clark Special Economic Zone in Pampanga and the
Luisita Industrial Park in Tarlac. Opposition to the NorthRail project
particularly comes from urban poor dwellers along the railways whose homes will
be demolished once construction reaches their area. About 20,000 families could
lose their homes and livelihood for the project’s first phase alone. In a statement, the SNPC said blood is bound
to spill once the government pursues this project. During a violent demolition
last Sept. 21, the group said, the Philippine National Police (PNP) and the
Provincial Mobile Group (PMG) injured seven urban poor dwellers from the town of
Meycauayan. The report said the victims’ heads were hit by crowbars while their
arms, chests and legs were hit by the demolition crew’s mallets and hammers.
So far, the project’s construction has torn
down around 7,000 homes in the cities of Caloocan, Malabon and Valenzuela in
Metro Manila. More families will soon find themselves homeless as Macapagal-Arroyo
issued as early as last Nov. 8 Administrative Order (AO) No. 11. The AO
authorizes the National Housing Authority (NHA) to take charge of demolitions
and forced relocations of affected residents. But government relocation has proven to be
disastrous for the urban poor dwellers hit by the NorthRail construction.
In an interview with Bulatlat in
October 2004, a number of those relocated in a hilly village in San Jose, Del
Monte, Bulacan complained of shortage of water, food, electricity and other
necessities, not to mention government neglect
after their relocation. On the other hand, sugar and mill workers in
Hacienda Luisita who went on a simultaneous strike last Nov. 6 are blocking the
construction of the SCTEP as they also stand to lose their homes once the
project gets underway. Moreover, the cane workers who are
farm-worker beneficiaries (FWBs) under the government’s Comprehensive Agrarian
Reform Program (CARP) are demanding the immediate implementation of the
Department of Agrarian Reform’s recommendation to revoke the estate’s
Stock Distribution Plan (SDP). The SDP is an option under the CARP that
allows landowners to operate their landholdings as corporations. If this plan is
recalled, the land will be up for distribution to FWBs. The latter in turn will
demand that the land should remain undivided. The mill and cane workers’ opposition to the
project and their militancy to uphold their strike are, however, met with
military brutality, reports show. After facing the bloodiest picket line
dispersal last Nov. 16 which left seven dead, scores injured and disappeared,
the hacienda workers continue face military threats. Deployed inside the hacienda itself are
around 300 soldiers from three companies of the 69th Infantry
Battalion and the 703rd Infantry Brigade. Practically each of the 11
villages comprising the hacienda has a military detachment, it was learned. Second wave Union members now see the strong military
presence as the “second wave” of its kind after the government tagged the
hacienda workers’ strike as a “national security threat.” The first quarter of this year witnessed the
killing of four hacienda workers’ supporters (i.e., peasant leaders Marcelino
Beltran and Victor Concepcion, Tarlac City Councilor Abel Ladera, and
activist-priest William Tadena). Five activists also disappeared, including the
President’s distant relative Danny Macapagal. In the book Trinity of War (Book III)
published by the Nolcom, it said “The combined labor-agrarian unrest (in
Hacienda Luisita) did not only cripple Luzon’s biggest sugar refinery and sugar
plantation; it will also subsequently affect the government’s program to boost
CL’s economic development.” It added, “Disrupting the SCTEP’s
construction through the Hacienda Luisita strike,… will slow down efforts by the
national government to speed up the socio-economic development in CL and address
widespread poverty that is a breeding ground of rebellion.” Sr. Cecile said in the Oct. 12 press
conference that if Palparan continues to sow terror in order to assure the
continuation of the government’s flagship projects, human rights violations,
especially the killings, will continue. Bulatlat
© 2005 Bulatlat
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Bulatlat“Sowing fear”
Pilot projects
Opposition