This story
was taken from Bulatlat, the Philippines's alternative weekly
newsmagazine (www.bulatlat.com, www.bulatlat.net, www.bulatlat.org).
Vol. VII, No. 4, Feb. 25-March 3, 2007
By Carol
Pagaduan-Araullo © 2007 Bulatlat
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Alipato Publications Permission is granted to reprint or redistribute this article, provided its author/s and Bulatlat are properly credited and notified.
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.
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