STREETWISE*
The Return of Fascist Rule
The Anti-Terrorism Bill promises to be the
legal firmament for the return of fascist dictatorship while maintaining
the grand pretense of “democratic” rule. Without a doubt, it also will
create a firestorm of protest and resistance that will signal the end of
another oppressive and reviled ruler the same way the unlamented dictator
Marcos was toppled by an aroused Filipino people.
BY CAROL PAGADUAN-ARAULLO
Business World
Posted by Bulatlat
Anyone who has yearned for and enjoyed the inner peace and tranquility
brought about by a period of complete silence and focused meditation knows
the shock of sudden and unexpected intrusion of any form, more so the
jarring violence of physical aggression imposed with arrogance and abuse
of authority. Therefore the forcible entry and intrusive search into the
convent of the Contemplatives of the Good Shepherd (CGS) in the late
evening of All Saints’ Day is a clear travesty.
Not only did the police raiding team headed by a certain Col. Wilfredo
Reyes violate the law by failing to present a valid search warrant, they
completely disregarded the internationally recognized principle of
sanctuary accorded to churches, mosques and similar religious venues. (The
same raiding team subsequently attempted to enter the convent of the
Missionary Sisters of Mary and also conducted a search at the San Lorenzo
Ruiz Pastoral Center, all located within the vicinity of Baan, Butuan
City.)
The lame excuse that the police did not know what “contemplative” means
and that it was a case of “mistaken identity” appears to be a clumsy
attempt to escape blame for official wrongdoing; if true, it also exposes
police incompetence of the highest order.
Why, in the wake of this latest outrage, is there complete silence,
amounting to tacit approval, from the Arroyo government, starting with the
immediate superiors of the police unit that conducted the raid, all the
way up to the police top brass, the Department of Interior and Local
Government (DILG) and Malacañang itself?
Such a response from the authorities is no longer surprising. Until the
hue and cry from the local and international human rights community, the
Arroyo regime had resorted to looking the other way and pretending that no
violations of human rights were taking place. It repeatedly said that the
political killings were merely the result of the overactive imagination of
human rights organizations such as Karapatan, whose motives are, in the
first place, suspect, since these are considered by the Arroyo government
to be “front organizations” of the Communist Party of the Philippines-New
People’s Army (CPP-NPA).
When the official denials and washing of hands became patently
unacceptable, Mrs. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, created a police task force
and then a so-called “independent” commission to investigate the rash of
political killings. If only to give these bodies an iota of credibility,
one would have expected that they make some sort of statement condemning
the CGS raid as well as the most recent murder of the chairperson of the
Eastern Samar chapter of Karapatan, who was gunned down using the old
modus operandi of death squads cited by Amnesty International. Except for
the condemnation by Butuan Bishop Juan de Pueblos, himself incidentally a
member of the Melo Commission, we have not heard a squeak from the
much-vaunted but inutile investigative body.
The uniformly complete silence of superiors all the way up to Malacañang
confirms that all these illegal actions by state authorities are not
isolated incidents but are done in accordance with state policy. More
ominously, these recent incidents show the Arroyo regime is bent on
intensifying its violent and indiscriminate persecution not only of its
political opponents but also those who advocate human rights, justice and
peace.
Clearly, Malacañang no less should be held accountable not only because it
continues to fail to put a stop to these gross and wanton human rights
violations, but because it has initiated all these in the first place
through its militarist policy of “total war against the Left” and because
it continues to encourage and reward the perpetrators in spite of
widespread condemnation and its own posturing and protestations of
innocence.
To the victims of the state’s human rights violations and their
supporters, the Arroyo regime is not just an accomplice or compliant
collaborator, it is the mastermind of all these crimes.
These recent events leave no doubt as to the real danger, if not the
intent, behind the Anti-Terrorism Bill (ATB) that Mrs. Arroyo wants
approved by the Senate before the ASEAN(Association of Southeast Asian
Nations) ministerial meeting that the Philippines is hosting in December.
Not content with getting away with murder and other grievous offenses,
Malacañang wants the state apparatus to have an even greater leeway to
invade privacy, arrest and detain indefinitely on the basis of the
flimsiest (and in practice, fabricated) accusations, proscribe legitimate
protest actions such as industrial strikes and political rallies and
illegalize legitimate organizations critical of government, and a whole
slew of fascist measures that would allow it to rule with an iron hand
without having to declare martial law.
In fact the International Commission of Jurists (ICJ), “a leading
international non-governmental organization consisting of jurists who
represent all the regions and legal systems in the world, working to
uphold the rule of law and the legal protection of human rights,” has
urged the Philippine Senate not to adopt the ATB without “significant
amendments to ensure compliance with international humanitarian law.”
The ICJ specifically cited “the proposed reintroduction of the death
penalty as punishment for the crime of terrorism, excessive periods of
detention without judicial authorization, and a number of other
far-reaching law enforcement powers accorded to the military.” The ICJ
noted that history gives ample evidence that “using the military in
policing increases the risks of human rights abuses as they are not
trained as investigators, law enforcers, prison officials or experts
examining bank records.”
The ICJ was further concerned about the powers and accountability of a new
Anti-Terrorism Council to be created by the ATB. To wit, “The Council will
have far-reaching and at times open-ended powers, including the
establishment of extensive data-bases, a special counter-terrorism force
and other powers without specifying their scope, modalities and democratic
control.”
The Anti-Terrorism Bill promises to be the legal firmament for the return
of fascist dictatorship while maintaining the grand pretense of
“democratic” rule. Without a doubt, it also will create a firestorm of
protest and resistance that will signal the end of another oppressive and
reviled ruler the same way the unlamented dictator Marcos was toppled by
an aroused Filipino people. Business World / Posted by Bulatlat
*Published in Business World
10-11 November 2006
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