Peace activists and human rights advocates in Manila last week opposed the proposal that former British Prime Minister Tony Blair help Philippine President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo clinch a peace agreement with political armed groups currently waging their respective civil wars against the Arroyo government.
BY GERRY ALBERT CORPUZ
Politics in Command / UPI Asia Online
Posted by Bulatlat
Vol. VIII, No. 13, May 4-10, 2008
MANILA, Philippines – Peace activists and human rights advocates in Manila last week opposed the proposal that former British Prime Minister Tony Blair help Philippine President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo clinch a peace agreement with political armed groups currently waging their respective civil wars against the Arroyo government.
Anti-U.S. war activists cited the active role played by the former British leader in the Washington-led war in Iraq. They said the U.S.-led war on terror in Iraq has resulted in the death of 1.2 million Iraqis, the displacement of 4 million Iraqis, and the devastation of the economy and social infrastructure of Iraq since U.S. President George W. Bush launched the attack in the aftermath of the Sept. 11, 2001 carnage in New York City.
Atty. Jobert Pahilga, campaign advocacy officer for the Manila-based lawyers’ group National Union of People’s Lawyers (NUPL), argued that the former British prime minister is not a credible person to initiate or lead any campaign for peace.
The Filipino activist lawyer said Blair’s participation in the bloody U.S. military offensive in Iraq is unpardonable, and has been condemned by people around the globe. “It is so ridiculous to see Mr. Blair coming to Manila to talk about peace, where in fact, war and not peace is his political cup of tea,” Pahilga said.
Pahilga has been very vocal for the resumption of the stalled peace talks between the Manila government and the communist-led National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP).
The American people and the international community have seen and condemned the horrors of war in Iraq and Afghanistan orchestrated by the United States with the active support of the British government under the Blair administration. To date, the U.S. war in Iraq, as supported aggressively by Blair, has resulted in 4,000 deaths and 30,000 serious injuries and illnesses to 260,000 U.S. troops.
Global opinion has lamented that the American taxpaying public has been forced to finance the war at a staggering cost of not less than US$3 trillion over the last five years. Blair might also have spent millions of euros to back up Bush’s war in Iraq.
Other peace groups and human rights organizations in Manila also shared the same observation raised by Pahilga. These groups, supportive of the peace talks, have asserted that Blair has no moral, political or legal authority to present himself as a peacemaker.
Resource groups in the stalled peace talks between the Manila government and the communist guerillas have opposed giving the former top British leader a role in the peace talks.
The fisherfolk alliance Pamalakaya (National Federation of Small Fisherfolk Organizations), the peasant activist group Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (KMP or Peasant Movement of the Philippines), the Unyon ng Mga Manggagawa sa Agrikultura (UMA or Union of Agricultural Workers), and Amihan (National Federation of Peasant Women) blamed Blair for the inclusion of the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) in the terror list of the European Union.
These groups said Blair’s action was used as the basis for the Arroyo government to unleash two military operations that resulted in the deaths of 902 leftwing activists and the abduction of nearly 200 political dissenters from 2001 to 2008 as documented by Karapatan (Alliance for the Advancement of People’s Rights).
Peace groups in Manila said they would prefer the involvement of Pope Benedict XVI in the peace negotiations in the country rather than see the former British prime minister meddling in the government peace talks with the communist guerillas and the Moro rebels.
Earlier Pamalakaya invited the Holy See to the country to discover the “true state of human rights and civil liberties” in the Philippines. The humanitarian appeal stemmed from the landmark address of the 81-year old German pontiff to the United Nations (UN)General Assembly, in which he said that human rights are the common language and ethical substratum of international relations and promoting these rights is the best way to eliminate inequalities.
Pope Benedict said victims of hardship and despair, whose human dignity is violated with impunity, become easy prey to the call to violence, and they can then become violators of peace. By contrast, he said, recognition of human rights favored conversion of the heart, which then leads to a commitment to resist violence, terrorism and war.
Benedict said the international community sometimes had the duty to intervene when a country could not protect its own people from “grave and sustained violations of human rights.”
Pamalakaya previously issued an appeal to archbishops and bishops of the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines and its president, Jaro Archbishop Angel Lagdameo, to invite and convince Pope Benedict XVI to come to the country so he could listen to the voices of the grassroots people and their defenders who are suffering from state-sponsored terrorism, extrajudicial killings, enforced disappearances and political persecution.
The group said Pope Benedict XVI should be informed that the Arroyo government and the pro-Arroyo chain of command in the military are also resorting to fabrication of criminal and murder charges against human rights defenders and advocates of genuine reforms to be able to contain them from exposing and opposing the crimes of the ruling de facto martial law.
Blair and Pope Benedict XVI represent war and peace respectively. Blair champions senseless and unjust war, the pope in the Vatican wants peace and the international community’s involvement in the global respect for human rights and civil liberties. It is obvious why Manila peace advocates prefer the pontiff over the war maker. UPI Asia Online / Posted by (Bulatlat.com)
