HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH

Resist Political Persecution, Defend the People’s Rights

We fear. We grieve. We rage. But let us rise above this fear, and transform our grief and rage to an undying commitment to the cause of people’s rights.

By Edre U. Olalia*
Posted by Bulatlat

Naimbag nga agsapa kadakayo amin!  A pleasant good morning to all! Nabara a kablaaw kadakayo amin! Militant greetings to all of you!

For the past nights, we saw how members of the House of Representatives identified with the Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo (GMA) administration brazenly and manipulatively moved for charter change through a senate-less Constituent Assembly.  This clearly indicates that GMA and her cohorts in Congress are making all efforts to change the 1987 Constitution as a last bid, among others, to perpetuate themselves in power and for GMA as a last resort for her political survival.

This brazenness comes after a rebuff from the Supreme Court of the Malacanang-backed false people’s initiative that a revision of the Constitution cannot be made through people’s initiative.  The Supreme Court even went further to declare that there appears anomalies in the gathering of the more than alleged 6 million signatures to the said initiative.

These developments are very significant particularly for human rights defenders and advocates.  And the theme for your Assembly is most appropriate and timely. One of the major targets for revision is Article III or the Bill of Rights.  The Bill of Rights as we all know is supposed to serve as a minimum safeguard against State violations or abuses of individual civil and political rights.  It sets the minimum standards as far as the conduct of arrest, search and seizure, rights of the accused in detention and under custodial investigation, on due process and equal protection of the law, on privacy of communication and correspondence, freedom of speech, expression and assembly and the like. 

These formal constitutional provisions, imperfect and not even followed in practice as they are, will be undermined by the draconian Anti-Terrorism Bill (ATB) that is also being rushed by those in temporary power, a legislation that falls into the design of the U.S.-led global war of terrorism.

The ATB provides for a very vague and all-encompassing definition of the term terrorism.  It practically would include all lawful and legitimate dissent against the present dispensation as acts of “terrorism”.  Worse, it proposes longer detention without charges being filed in court for periods even beyond what is provided in the 1987 Constitution in case of suspension of the privilege of the writ of habeas corpus.  In other words, we see a further and more systematic legitimization of the human rights violations as practiced and customarily done by the military, police and other law enforcement agents.

Amidst all these is the escalation of political killings and abductions.  According to KARAPATAN, from January to November of this year, it documented 185 political killings and the number of victims of enforced disappearances this year reached 93, the highest in the six-year presidency of Mrs. Arroyo.  Majority of the victims of extrajudicial killings and abductions were members of progressive partylists and peoples’ organizations. Today it has reached 794 summarily executed with hundreds more missing and hundreds more who survived these attacks.

“Rule of law”

The extrajudicial killings common during the Martial Law regime of the dictator Ferdinand Marcos are back with a vengeance under GMA’s “rule of law.”  The targets have not changed and the intentions are the same – “to wipe out insurgency” and “run to the ground” any opposition to a regime that does not represent the interests or has lost the trust and confidence of the people.  The only difference is that the current policy remains an undeclared martial law.

These numbers are among the human rights violations committed under Operation Plan Bantay Laya or Operation Freedom Watch by the Macapagal-Arroyo regime.  It is a five-year policy and program launched in 2002 as part of the government’s so-called “all-out war” against insurgency.

Operation Bantay Laya or OBL is the latest local application of the United States sponsored and Central Intelligence Agency brainchild “low intensity conflict” (LIC).  It is a mode of war not just used against the revolutionary Communist Party of the Philippines – New People’s Army – National Democratic Front of the Philippines or CPP-NPA-NDFP waging their armed struggle for national and social liberation.  But is a policy that is also directed against unarmed militant organizations and civilians critical of the Arroyo regime.  These legal organizations are accused by the AFP as collaborators, supporters or front organizations of the CPP-NPA-NDFP.  As stated by the coward Gen. Jovito Palparan, its Number One implementor, OBL is intended to “reduce their numbers.” 

Operation Bantay Laya declares it open season for militant sectoral organizations and legal institutions that have taken the cause of the poor and marginalized.  Even church organizations and personalities have not been spared.  The range of victims has broadened from farmers, workers, partylist members, community organizers, activists, to churchpeople, journalists and lawyers.

Another characteristic of OBL is red-baiting and smear campaign.  This inevitably led to the blacklisting of progressive organizations and the drawing up of an “order of battle” of people targeted for “neutralization,” a euphemism for physical extermination or attack. 

According to the Operations Intelligence Division (OID) Conceptual Framework of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP), the preparation of an Intelligence Project against a target personality or organization usually takes at least one year and the time frame for “neutralization” of a target is three months. 

State policy

The extrajudicial killings are, therefore, well-planned, premeditated and the result of state policy.  There is a pattern. It starts with the labeling, red-baiting or vilification of activists and militants. Then this is followed by open or covert threats and surveillance. Then the modes of killing and the circumstances of the attacks are similar, happening even near police or military establishments. And these are capped by a systematic cover-up or passing of the blame that condones, encourages, induces or tolerates these attacks.

The killings are not the handiwork of ordinary criminals.  They are carried out through collaborative action among the armed and civilian agencies of the government and anti-communist fanatical mass organizations often set up, funded or supported in a variety of ways by the government.  OBL declares its targets guilty without due process and the military acts as witness, judge and executioner rolled into one.

Of the more than seven hundred extrajudicial killings, none has been really solved.  The victims and their family still cry out for justice.

The culture of impunity being imposed by the state continues to this day. And the law and the legal and judicial system engender or contribute to this impunity.

The shameful Task Force Usig and the dubious and incredible Melo Commission tasked to supposedly investigate the killings have not yielded truthful results.  They have proven to be nothing but whitewashing machines of the government.

Desecration

To wash its hands off its crimes against the people, the government has even gone far as desecrating the memories of our martyrs. Malicious reports on the identities of the martyrs and reasons why they were killed are being circulated by agents of the state.  They even insultingly point to the companions and/or comrades of the martyrs as those behind their deaths.

The suppression of the people’s democratic rights is directly connected to the economic agenda which the government is pushing regardless of its irreparable damage to our lives, land and resources.

The extrajudicial killings also come in the wake of Arroyo’s State of the Nation Address where she reiterated her aggressive campaign for Charter Change to allow the unhampered entry of global corporations into the country.  The so-called Northern Luzon Mega Region is largely anchored on her obsession to open mining operations in the Cordillera provinces to vested foreign interests.

At present, 1.2 million square meters of the 1.8 million square meters or 85% of the total land area of the Cordillera is covered by mining applications and operations. This excludes areas covered by other destructive projects such as dams and logging operations.  These destructive projects would further marginalize indigenous peoples from their ancestral lands and would lead to escalation of militarism in the region.

This situation of escalating violations on people’s rights is made worse by the insincerity of the Philippine government to continue the peace negotiations with the CPP-NPA-NDFP.  The Philippine government has set up obstacles to its resumption and has not resolved fundamental prejudicial questions like the “terrorist” listing of the CPP and NPA and the NDFP Chief Political Consultant and now the outrageous political killings. It has not really implemented in earnest the Comprehensive Agreement on Respect for Human Rights and International Humanitarian Law (CARHRIHL) it entered with the NDF and has refused to meet with its counterpart in the Joint Monitoring Committee (JMC) tasked to monitor said agreement. It has also refused any offer to jointly look into the spate of killings and disappearances.

New fascist dictator

All these make Macapagal-Arroyo the new fascist dictator. 

Friends, clients, comrades in the human rights struggle, ladies and gentlemen – your 3rd regional congress of the Cordillera Human Rights Alliance (CHRA) comes against a backdrop of disquieting, gross and wholesale violations to people’s rights as illustrated in the foregoing.

But I know you will not be cowed.  As I said in another recent forum, we will not allow these attacks to continue without end. We will not step aside. We will not lie low. We will not withdraw from your cases. We will fight. The victory is the people’s.

As one had said before: “We were not cowed then and we shall not be cowed now.  Tyrants throughout the ages have tried in vain to kill the truth by killing the bearers of truth.  The foliage has grown thicker for every seed that falls to the ground. History shows that political repression can only fuel revolution and martyrdom has never reduced the number of people who bear the cause of freedom and truth but on the contrary fertilized its growth.”               

A latest testimony to this is the formation of HUSTISYA!  an organization of the victims of people’s rights violations and their family against the Arroyo regime.  Even the victims have not been cowed and silenced.  For every killing, a family is aroused, mobilized and organized to demand for justice.

HUSTISYA! and other progressive organizations have indicted the Macapagal-Arroyo in various fora such as with the government Commission on Human Rights (CHR) and in the prosecutors, trial courts and Congress.  The victims and their representatives have forwarded complaints with the United Nations Human Rights Committee, pertinent UN Special Rapporteurs and Working Groups and other related mechanisms and international organizations.  The latest is the filing of complaints with the prestigious and credible court of opinion, the International Permanent People’s Tribunal (IPPT) which would hold its Second Session on the Philippines in March 2007.

Another testimony is the ever-growing and strengthening movement for the defense and advocacy of individual and collective rights and the formation of Stop the Killings Network.  This Network composed of church clergy and lay workers, members of the academe and other professionals have given their commitment to provide sanctuaries to the persecuted, legal services to the incarcerated and other assistance to victims aside from actively participating in the campaign to end political killings.

The active and continuing efforts of human rights organizations and advocates led to various international condemnation on the state of human rights in the Philippines.  Even foreign businesses have issued statements of condemnation. 

Yet, the Macapagal-Arroyo regime has not sincerely and effectively stopped the killings, failed in protecting its own citizens, and unable to bring the perpetrators to justice. We can not expect it to remove the political, economic, and social conditions for such killings and other human rights violations.

Tribute to human rights defenders

At this point, let us also take this occasion to give tribute to our human rights defenders.  The highest tribute, honor and recognition we can give to our heroes and martyrs is to continue their work.  Today let us honor Atty. Arthur Galace, Atty. Romeo Astudillo, and Atty. David Bueno who were active members of the Free Legal Assistance Group (FLAG) and served as Chairpersons of the Northern Luzon Human Rights Organization (NLHRO).  All stood firm during the dark years of Martial Law.  They served as people’s lawyers for those incarcerated, tortured and abused at that time.

We also honor Albert Terradano a paralegal worker of DINTEG (Cordillera Indigenous Peoples’ Legal Center) who unidentified assassins of the state mercilessly shot on November 29 last year in Bangued, Abra on his way to work.  Despite being a government employee and the sole breadwinner of his family, he unselfishly dedicated much of his time to assist victims of human rights violations.  We of course also remember Pepe Manegdeg, Alyce Claver, Marcus Bangit and others that the fascists have snatched from your ranks.

We fear. We grieve. We rage. But let us rise above this fear, and transform our grief and rage to an undying commitment to the cause of people’s rights.  Makibaka! Huwag matakot!

I know that this is no easy task.  They have taken much too many from our ranks. Many amongst us have been killed, tortured and remain missing to date.  We have lost the best sons and daughters of the human rights movement to this senseless killings.  However, during these trying times of undeclared Martial Rule by the Macapagal-Arroyo regime and imperialist plunder, let us break silence into a thundering song and transform fear into a movement for justice. Posted by Bulatlat

* Atty. Olalia is the President of the International Association of People’s Lawyers (IAPL). This paper is his keynote address to the 3rd Regional Assembly of the Cordillera Human Rights Alliance (CHRA), December 8, 2006, Baguio City, Philippines.

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