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Bu-lat-lat (boo-lat-lat) verb: to
search, probe, investigate, inquire; to unearth facts
Vol. VI, No. 16 May
28-June 3, 2006 Quezon City, Philippines |
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Copyright 2004 Bulatlat bulatlat@gmail.com |
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STREETWISE
Cover-up
At this point it should be obvious that
what the Arroyo government is engaged in is another massive cover-up, this
time, of official sanction for extrajudicial killings of progressives,
activists and their supporters.
By Carol Pagaduan-Araullo
Business World
Posted by Bulatlat
The Commission on Human Rights (CHR) position on the spate of killings of
members and officials of progressive party lists and militant
organizations on the Left of the political spectrum is the most sane
official pronouncement we have heard so far on the matter.
To wit, Chairman Purificacion Quisumbing is saying that at the minimum,
government should be held responsible for not putting a stop to this
epidemic of extrajudicial killings and thereby allowing a climate of
impunity to reign.
Since armed agents of the state are prime suspects, the Arroyo government
is all the more duty-bound to act swiftly, conduct a thorough,
no-nonsense, credible investigation that should produce results in terms
of arrests and the successful prosecution of the guilty, both triggermen
and masterminds.
What would Malacañang, the chambers of commerce, the socio-civic clubs and
even the Catholic Church hierarchy say, if a health epidemic that kills
scores, if not hundreds of people, over a short period of time, were
allowed by the Department of Health (DoH) to wreak havoc without it
lifting a finger? Why, that would trigger both an official and public
outcry.
When the Filipino-Chinese community raises the alarm about kidnappings of
its members, more so if they march in the streets the way they did when a
promising, young woman executive died at the hands of kidnappers several
years back, the authorities scramble to act. Malacañang issues a flurry
of strongly-worded directives for law enforcement agencies to produce
results within 48 hours or face the ire of no less than the President.
The same thing with high profile cases involving media personalities like
the popular actress Nida Blanca. Even if the cases should drag in court,
at the very least cases are built up through persistent police
investigative work and the dogged pursuit of justice by state prosecutors
and aggrieved parties themselves.
Curiously, but not unexpectedly, what has been happening with regard to
the alleged political killings is the exact opposite.
First are the official denials that such a spike in the number of cases is
true or indicates anything unusual. As far as Malacañang, the
police/military generals and hard-core anti-communist commentators in the
mass media are concerned there is no pattern to the killings, whether it
be the background and circumstances of the victims, the profile and
motives of the suspected perpetrators or the modus operandi of the
killers.
The statements of the victims’ relatives, friends and co-workers that
their chief suspects are “death squads” of the government, either members
of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) and the Philippine National
Police (PNP) or their assets are dismissed as biased and unreliable. There
is unison in the knee-jerk response of the police and the military that
the accusing fingers pointed in their direction are part and parcel of
“communist propaganda” and have no merit whatsoever.
Government officials rue the lack of witnesses who can give leads to
solving the murder cases and thereafter profess helplessness. Physical
evidence is not painstakingly gathered, possible suspects are not tracked
down, the crimes are quickly archived if not abandoned because according
to investigators, “there are no witnesses.”
In fact witnesses in this country do not come forward because they fear
for their lives, having very little trust and confidence in the
government’s will, capacity and track record in protecting them and their
families. How much more when suspicion is high that the assailants and
their bosses are in the very government agencies charged with
investigating such crimes.
A case in point are the witnesses in the abduction and murder of the human
rights leader of Karapatan (Alliance for the Advancement of People’s
Rights) in Southern Tagalog, Eden Marcellana, together with peasant
leader, Ka Eddie Gumanoy in 2003. In fact they themselves were abducted
when their fact-finding mission to Mindoro Oriental was waylaid by armed
men on a national highway. They survived the ordeal and courageously
stood as witnesses, even identifying the right-hand man of then Col.
Jovito Palparan, a master sergeant, as one of the kidnappers but nothing
happened. The case is still languishing in the (In)Justice Department.
Worse, the witnesses suffer all sorts of harassment and must rely on
their own meager resources to protect themselves.
Now that the Arroyo government is no longer able to deny that the rash of
political killings are a gruesome fact, they have resorted to a more
sinister line that both civilian and military authorities are saying in
chorus.
Mrs. Arroyo’s top security people are saying that the killings are being
done by the communists themselves since they have a history of bloody
purges. They dredge up the anti-infiltration campaign of the Communist
Party of the Philippines (CPP) in the early 1980s that went terribly awry
and victimized many innocent members and supporters of the communist
movement and they say this is what is happening again.
What they don’t say is that the CPP has publicly acknowledged, condemned
and vowed to make amends to the victims for the excesses and abuses that
their attempts to flush out military infiltrators from their ranks had
caused. (Something that the military and police high command have never
done vis a vis their own terrible human rights records.)
The government continues to shroud in mystery the pronouncements of the
CPP relating to this issue including their acknowledgement that such
anti-infiltration campaigns had caused more harm to their cause than even
the most fearsome government military campaigns. It stands to reason that
the CPP-NPA would be extremely careful not to allow a repeat of such a
grievous mistake.
Nevertheless, Mrs. Arroyo’s men - Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita,
National Security Adviser Norberto Gonzales, Justice Secretary Raul
Gonzalez, PNP chief Arturo Lomibao and the AFP top brass want us to
believe that the most plausible reason for the more than 250 alleged
political killings that are continuing to this day is that the members of
the CPP-NPA are simply killing each other for reasons that are still to be
determined.
At this point it should be obvious that what the Arroyo government is
engaged in is another massive cover-up, this time, of official sanction
for extrajudicial killings of progressives, activists and their
supporters. Business World / Posted by Bulatlat
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