HUMAN RIGHTS

New dictator in the Palace
State of Undeclared Martial Law

On Monday, President Arroyo will deliver her State of the Nation Address amidst the outcry over continued political killings, abductions, and militarization in the provinces. But expect the human rights situation to be excluded from the SONA, as activists say Arroyo’s grip on power is based on her brazen violation of the right to life.

BY DEE AYROSO
Bulatlat

Expect the human rights situation to be excluded in this year’s State of the Nation Address (SONA) of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, whom a human rights alliance said has gained the title “new dictator in Malacañang”. Arroyo will deliver her SONA amidst continued killings and disappearances of activists, and militarization in the countryside. This past week, two activist leaders were killed, one wounded, and many others abducted and missing in the provinces of Isabela, Nueva Ecija, Pampanga and Quezon, all in Luzon island. Such “annihilation campaign” and rights abuses of the Arroyo administration are being used to quell dissent and keep Arroyo in power, said the Alliance for the Advancement of People’s Rights or Karapatan.  And the “broadness, intensity and brazenness” of the attacks on civilians by state security forces under Arroyo has equaled that during Martial Law, it added.

MARTYR: Mercedes Montabon cries over the picture of her son Marvin, 21, who was shot and burned to death by soldiers in their hut in Tarangnan town, Samar province, on March 14, 2005 BULATLAT FILE PHOTO

The rights abuses under Arroyo has “made her the next dictator after Ferdinand Marcos,” said Marie Hilao-Enriquez, secretary general of KARAPATAN.

“President Arroyo’s desperate pursuit for political survival has virtually turned her into a new dictator and the nation in a state of undeclared martial law. The only way out of the worsening trend of killings, abductions and other gross human rights is the removal of the Fake President from office.”

The government’s “annihilation campaign” has taken the form of killings, disappearances, political persecution and attacks on civil liberties. 

Enriquez presented Karapatan’s documents from 2001 to July 21 this year, showing 711 killed and 175 abducted and missing. There were also 350 victims of frustrated killings, most of whom identified their attackers as belonging to the military and police. The latest killed was Arnel Guevarra, an activist who was killed in Malino village, Mexico town in Pampanga evening of July 21.

Enriquez said Arroyo’s political persecution of her opponents has so far twisted the meaning of “rebellion” or “to take up arms,” as the government filed charges even against progressive party-list representatives and legitimate personalities. Arroyo’s calibrated preemptive response and revival of the Marcos’s Batas Pambansa 880 also violated the people’s right to freedom of expression, she said.

On the offensive

Karapatan documents show that 2006 has been so far the worst year for human rights under Arroyo. Of the total human rights violations committed in five and a half years under her regime, 38 percent of the cases were committed from January to July 21 this year.  The violations include killings, disappearances, harassment and other abuses. It also includes 262,908 people who have been forcibly evacuated and displaced, mostly in the saturation drives by government troops.

In the first half of 2006, there were 62 cases of disappearances and 115 killings documented, compared to last year’s 56 disappearances and 184 killings.

In 2005, the killings and attacks waned from June to August when Arroyo was put on the defensive at the height of the “Hello Garci” scandal, the ouster calls and the impeachment process. The assaults however, resumed as soon as the impeachment efforts failed in the House of Representatives.

On June 17, Arroyo declared an all-out offensive against New People’s Army (NPA) rebels and a deadline to finish off the insurgency in two years. Oplan Bantay Laya, or the government’s end-game strategy meant to curb the insurgency movement by 2006, as well as the retirement date of Maj. Gen. Jovito Palparan this September, had made it all the more worse for the state of human rights, as civilians received the brunt of the government’s attacks. 

Counterinsurgency efforts have sent Army troops not only to remote, hilly villages, but even in communities in town centers, in search of rebels and their sympathizers. Mere census-gathering has become a way for soldiers to instill fear in the people, as soldiers in full battle gears intimidate household members to admit if they let NPA rebels into their home. 

In Lopez town in Quezon, soldiers stop and frisk people at checkpoints, and have required each household to submit a family picture. On July 13, in Parista village, Lupao town in Nueva Ecija (115 kms north of Manila), soldiers conducted a census at the house of Tessie Abellera in the morning.  By evening, Abellera, a former political detainee and Bayan Muna leader, and her son Rodel, were abducted by five armed men suspected to be soldiers. A week later, on July 20, Philip dela Cruz, 45, was also abducted by two M16 rifle-armed men in military uniform at 5 p.m. in the same village.  Bulatlat

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