It is not enough to commemorate International Human Rights Day and remember the transgressions of the Macapagal-Arroyo administration on our hard-fought for rights. We should also be relentless in the struggle against the impunity of the Macapagal-Arroyo administration until we have put a stop to the transgressions, attained justice for the victims, and ushered in a truly democratic government.
BY BENJIE OLIVEROS
ANALYSIS
Bulatlat
Vol. VII, No. 44, December 9-15, 2007
The commemoration of International Human Rights Day gains more significance and urgency whenever civil liberties and human rights are under attack. Advocacy for civil liberties and human rights in the Philippines gained prominence during the dark days of Martial law. It was relegated to the background with the ouster of the Marcos dictatorship and the general state of euphoria prevailing at that time. Human rights became a major concern once again with the unsheathing of the “sword of war” of the Aquino administration and the creation of anti-communist vigilante groups by the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP). A photo of a vigilante holding the decapitated head of a suspected communist sympathizer shocked the public, as well as the international community from its complacency, which emanated from the feeling that all is well in the human rights front.
While violations continued with the succeeding administrations of Ramos and Estrada, the public’s concern for human rights was relegated to the background once again. The failed promises of globalization and “NIChood” – the promise of achieving the status of “newly-industrialized country” – manifested in the financial crisis of 1997 and the corresponding hardships it caused among the people became the primary concern during the Ramos administration. On the other hand, the issue of barefaced corruption took center stage during the Estrada administration causing its downfall.
The statement of Pres. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo in London December 6 that “The transgressors will not hold this nation hostage with impunity…Justice will be served and the people’s interest upheld,” – referring to Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV and Brig. Gen. Danilo Lim who led a standoff at the Manila Peninsula in Makati – could apply to her, her cabal of human rights violators most especially Exec. Sec. Eduardo Ermita, National Security Adviser Norberto Gonzales, AFP Chief of Staff Hermogenes Esperon, Justice Sec. Raul Gonzalez, and the whole administration.
Impunity characterizes this government’s record whether in corruption or in human rights violations; the commission of injustices by the state, which is supposedly tasked with dispensing justice, defines its rule; and the protection of the interest of a few, represented by the small clique of Arroyo desperately clinging to power, determines its policies.
Thus, as we commemorate International Human Rights Day this year, let us remember the transgressions of the Macapagal-Arroyo administration on the Filipino people’s hard-fought for rights:
1. the spate of extrajudicial killings and enforced disappearances which began to increase in 2002, – when the counterinsurgency program Oplan Bantay Laya (Operation Freedom Watch) commenced – reached its peak in 2005 and 2006, and decreased in 2007 only through local and international pressure
2. the imposition of military rule with Oplan Bantay Laya making the cabinet cluster on national security the center of power and where military commanders hold sway over civilian officials in rural areas
3. the violent dispersal of rallies justified through the calibrated preemptive response policy issued during the last quarter of 2005 to suppress the growing movement for the ouster of the Macapagal-Arroyo administration
4. the violation of the people’s right to information through the issuance of Exec. Order 464, a gag order barring government and military officials from testifying in congressional investigations
5. the declaration of a state of national emergency in February 2006, through Presidential Proclamation 1017 which was copied almost word-per-word from Proclamation 1081 of the Marcos dictatorship which placed the country under martial rule
6. the blatant use of the Department of Justice in the filing of trumped-up charges and short-circuiting of judicial processes to run after critics of the Macapagal-Arroyo administration
7. the passage of the anti-terrorism law, euphemistically called the Human Security Act, which, when implemented, would grossly violate civil liberties and human rights
8. suppression of press freedom through constant warnings and threats against media and culminating in the arrest of journalists covering the standoff at the Manila Peninsula
9. the arbitrary imposition of curfew in the aftermath of the Makati standoff
It will be remembered that the issues of human rights and civil liberties gained prominence during the Marcos dictatorship and again under the Macapagal-Arroyo administration not only because it was being violated with impunity. It is the relentless struggle for the people’s rights that pushed it as a national concern. And this struggle culminated in the ouster of the Marcos dictatorship then.
It is not enough to commemorate International Human Rights Day and remember the transgressions of the Macapagal-Arroyo administration on our hard-fought for rights. We should also be relentless in the struggle against the impunity of the Macapagal-Arroyo administration until we have put a stop to the transgressions, attained justice for the victims, and ushered in a truly democratic government. Bulatlat
