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Bu-lat-lat (boo-lat-lat) verb: to
search, probe, investigate, inquire; to unearth facts
Vol. VII, No. 4
Feb 25 - March 3, 2007 Quezon City, Philippines |
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STREETWISE
The Alston Report
The Alston Report fails to strike at the heart of what causes
the killings and thus, as one death squad survivor predicted, more
killings are bound to ensue. It will be up to the Filipino people to
finally put a stop them by putting an end to the US-backed Arroyo regime
that is the real brains behind the state policy of extrajudicial
killings.
By Carol
Pagaduan-Araullo
BusinessWorld
Posted by Bulatlat
The initial report of UN rapporteur Philip Alston on his investigation
into extrajudicial killings in the Philippines has vindicated the
position of the victims’ families and zealous advocates of justice for
the victims such as the human rights organization Karapatan, activist
people’s organizations and a host of local and international
faith-based, academic and professional groups and institutions that took
up the cudgels for the victims. In sum, according to Mr. Alston,
extrajudicial killings are a fact, they are significant in number and
impact, and government is responsible for a “climate of virtual
impunity” that allows the killers to get away with their crimes and for
the killings to continue unimpeded.
The UN report constitutes a stinging rebuke of the chorus of denials
that have consistently been issued by the de facto President Mrs.
Macapagal-Arroyo, the high Cabinet officials who compose the Cabinet
Oversight Committee on Internal Security (COC-IS) as well as the heads
of the armed forces and the police about the existence of the problem of
extrajudicial killings and its underlying as well as proximate causes.
Mr. Alston stressed, “The impact of even a limited number of killings of
the type alleged is corrosive in many ways. It intimidates vast numbers
of civil society actors, it sends a message of vulnerability to all but
the most well connected, and it severely undermines the political
discourse which is central to a resolution of the problems confronting
this country.”
Furthermore, Mr. Alston categorically rejected the explanations
proffered by government that the killings are first, mere propaganda by
the CPP-NPA and their “front organizations”; second, they are fabricated
and thus overblown; third, they can be explained by “purges” among and
within the communist movement; and fourth, the very few attributable to
the AFP are undertaken by so-called “rogue elements” and thereby do not
reflect on the entire military establishment.
He clearly pointed the finger in the direction of the military
establishment in so far as the perpetrators of a majority of these
killings. He upbraided the inability of the judicial system to render
justice due to government’s failure to undertake effective police
investigations that lead to actual prosecution and punishment of the
guilty parties.
Apparently, Mr. Alston did not buy the line that the Arroyo government
had been trying so hard to sell: that the existence of a tough and
long-running communist insurgency with a sophisticated and extensive
infrastructure of political support from its rural mass base to the
urban centers including Congress itself necessitates a policy of
constricting, if not totally eliminating, the “legitimate space for
leftist political groups.”
He correctly observed that while “neither the party-list system nor the
repeal of the Anti-Subversion Act has been reversed by Congress…the
executive branch, openly and enthusiastically aided by the military, has
worked resolutely to circumvent the spirit of these legislative
decisions by trying to impede the work of the party-list groups and to
put in question their right to operate freely.”
Mr. Alston concedes that while such moves may be “… non-violent in
conception, there are cases in which it has, certainly at the local
level, spilled over into decisions to extra judicially execute those who
cannot be reached by legal process.” (Read: Because the government is
hard put to file and pursue the appropriate legal cases against these
unarmed, aboveground activists they are justified in resorting to
extrajudicial killings to permanently eliminate the nagging problem of
subversion and support for the revolutionary armed struggle.)
Surprisingly, the Alston report already took note that “the increase in
extrajudicial executions in recent years is attributable, at least in
part, to a shift in counterinsurgency strategy…” Specifically, “in some
areas, an appeal to hearts-and-minds is combined with an attempt to
vilify left-leaning organizations and to intimidate leaders of such
organizations. In some instances, such intimidation escalates into
extrajudicial execution.”
Having acknowledged the major positive points in the initial findings,
we must however point out the glaring inconsistencies and contradictory
assertions of the report. What stand out are the conclusions regarding
the solitary culpability of the AFP together with the hasty and
categorical absolution of the highest political authority in the Arroyo
regime. According to Mr. Alston, "I do not believe that there is a
policy at the top designed to, or which directs that these killings take
place," he said. "I am clear on that."
No proof that killings were given the go signal at the top? Wherefore
the Oplan Bantay Laya I, the comprehensive counter-insurgency plan that
has been in place since 2002, and the new OBL II that started last year?
Mrs. Arroyo claims not only that she is President but that she is also
the bonafide Commander-in-Chief. Mrs. Arroyo is not being held hostage
by the military but is fully in agreement with and has sanctioned what
Mr. Alston has so far only described as a “shift in counter-insurgency
strategy” that has spawned extrajudicial killings.
Impunity? Why does Mrs. Arroyo allow the military establishment to
treat accusations of human rights violations so cavalierly? Why are
there no serious investigations by the police but instead flat denials
and covers-up? Why has Mrs. Arroyo given quick promotions to the likes
of General Palparan, not to mention singling him out in the State-of
the-Nation address, heaping him with praises and giving unqualified
affirmation to his controversial counter-insurgency methods?
The Task Force Usig and the Melo Commission were not so much a show of
good faith on the part of Mrs. Arryo in responding to the allegations
but belated moves in reaction to the growing denunciation of her
government’s blackened human rights record. These were intended to help
cover-up the Arroyo regime’s culpability in the political killings by
engaging in the grand deception of setting up a so-called “independent
and powerful investigative commission”. The Melo Commission never
gained even a modicum of trust and confidence from the survivors of
attempted killings and the murdered victims’ families.
That the Melo Commission report would only be disclosed to the public
after the European Union representative and the UN Rapporteur demanded
it indicates that the most credible and dramatic parts of the report had
been released earlier only for propaganda purposes. Recall that Mrs.
Arroyo used the Palace’s press release about the Melo Commission report
to repeat the canard that the extrajudicial killings were overstated and
that the CPP-NPA were behind them.
Mr. Alston chides the armed forces for “being in a state of almost total
denial of its need to respond effectively and authentically to the
significant number of killings which have been convincingly attributed
to them.” What he misses is that it is the entire Arroyo regime,
starting with Mrs. Arroyo herself, that has been in complete and
absolute denial of the truth.
Unfortunately, the Alston Report fails to strike at the heart of what
causes the killings and thus, as one death squad survivor predicted,
more killings are bound to ensue. It will be up to the Filipino people
to finally put a stop them by putting an end to the US-backed Arroyo
regime that is the real brains behind the state policy of extrajudicial
killings. BusinessWorld/Posted by Bulatlat
*Published in Business World
23-24 February 2007
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