Over 700 civilians (nearly half of whom are affiliates of cause-oriented groups) have been murdered since Arroyo became president in January 2001, according to Karapatan (Alliance for the Advancement of People’s Rights).
The flagrant terrorism of the Arroyo-led state apparatus has now been universally condemned by the United Nations Human Rights Committee, Amnesty International, U.S. National Lawyers Guild, Asian Commission of Human Rights, and other transnational bodies. Arroyo’s complicity with kidnappings, tortures, and murders may be prosecuted under the terms of the 1966 International Covenant of Civil and Political Rights as well as various international treaties and protocols signed by the government.
The massive political killings and enforced “disappearances” recall the genocidal “Phoenix” massacres of Vietnamese suspects during the Vietnam War in the sixties supervised by Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) agent Col. Edward Lansdale, chief adviser to Ramon Magsaysay. It also recalls the systematic “vigilante” low-intensity assassinations during the Aquino administration. The U.S. gives annually several hundred million dollars’ worth of military aid (weapons, logistics, training) ostensibly to fight “international terrorism.” But this aid is used to suppress the NPA combatants, Muslim separatists, as well as ordinary Filipinos critical of Arroyo’s corruption, cheating, and subservience to the Bush administration.
Recently, the U.S. and Arroyo set up a Security Engagement Board to legitimize a prolonged U.S. military presence in violation of the Philippine Constitution (Article II, Sec. 3) prohibiting foreign troops from getting involved in internal security matters (IBON Media Release, May 26, 2006). These violations have been rampant since the country became “independent” in 1946.
